India

A slew of industry groups from the United States, in comments submitted for the annual Special 301 report the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative produces on intellectual property issues, have lobbed criticism at India and its recently announced National Intellectual Property Rights Policy for being too vague.

The group's first ask is a state dinner for India Prime Minister Modi in Trump's first year in office.

The United States has swatted away a proposal from Brazil, India, Korea and Mexico to eliminate the reappointment process for Appellate Body members at the World Trade Organization and instead require that they serve a single term of more than four years.

Expecting that bilateral dialogues like last week's U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum will produce landmark results creates an inaccurate frame for viewing advances between the two countries, which are making steady progress on a number of trade fronts, the senior director of the U.S.-India Business Council, Amy Hariani, said during an Oct. 21 interview with Inside U.S. Trade.

India at an Oct. 6 meeting of the World Trade Organization's Working Party on Domestic Regulation pitched a concept note for a so-called services trade facilitation agreement which would aim to reduce transaction costs accrued from regulation and administrative tasks inherent in services trade.

The DSB adopting those two reports at an Oct. 14 special meeting would move the U.S. one step closer to seeking retaliation against India and the EU.

Antidumping and countervailing duties set for two mandatory respondents as well as on the broader Indian industry