Trump speaks to Modi |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi US President Donald Trump discussed India-US ties in a phone call late on January 24 that was their first conversation after the new US head of state took office. They first spoke in November just after Trump`s election win. Though details were awaited, an official described the call as a “great conversation”. The fate of the temporary US visa programme for high-skilled foreign workers is India`s most significant concern from the Trump administration, given Trump`s reservations about it, and those of leading members of his team. They believe the H-1B programme is being abused by US companies to outsource American jobs to temporary foreign workers, a large number of them from India, and they have been considering ways to make it harder for that to happen. There is no other area of potential dispute or differences with the US under President. The programme is at the heart of India`s burgeoning IT exports to the US, and New Delhi, which views H-1B as a free-trade issue, believes any attempt to curtail it would amount to initiating protectionist measures. In response to a question about India-US relations, White House press secretary Sean Spicer had said earlier that, as with other countries, the Trump administration is focussed on access to markets in manufacturing and services.
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