Bilateral investment treaty between US & India to transform economic relations, says US official

Charles Rivkin bats for IPR protection law to further improve economy ties

The bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the US and India will transform in many ways economic and bilateral relations between the two countries, said the visiting US assistant secretary of state economic and business affairs Charles H Rivkin. During his interaction with reporters here on Friday, Rivkin said, “The US and China had held 15 rounds of talks on BIT. The US and India should start BIT talks. Discussions took place in February last time. Now we hope to resume talks soon as BIT will be a terrific foundation for bilateral relations.”

Rivkin’s statement is crucial when India has signed bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement with 82 countries. Rivkin said BIT would also help ensure protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) for investors.

Rivkin made a strong case for India to put in place a special law for the protection of IPR to help improve bilateral relationships and growth of two economies.

“IPR protection is critical as investors look for at least the presence of transparency, predictability and the rule of law. We can do better to improve. I just want to quote an example related to Bollywood, which loses 40 per cent of profits every year for lack of protection for IPR. The US wants the Indian economy to grow and reach its potential. Entrepreneurs should know that his ideas are not stolen as there is law in place for the protection of IPR,” he noted.

The visiting US official said a high-level working group on IPR will meet on November 24 and 25. “I will take up the IPR protection issue even during my participation in the tech summit happening in New Delhi next week. India needs to protect is own investments, its own extra ordinary talent in this country. I do not understand the logic against the protection of IPR. It certainly helps in realising the potential of any nation specifically India,” Rivkin noted.

On India reaching an agreement with the US on food security at WTO, Rivkin said: “It is wonderful news. US President Barack Obama has already thanked and acknowledged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making this happen. It is the first multilateral trade deal done in 20 years in WTO. It will reduce the cost for transactions, improve the integration of supply chain and a majority of the benefits will go to developing nations, including India. It is a great news for India and great news for global trade.”