NEW DELHI: The United States has told India it is considering caps on H-1B work visas for nations that force foreign companies to store data locally. The US decision has further widened the two countries’ row over tariffs and trade. H-1B visa program allows skilled foreign workers to work in United States. India is the largest recipient of these temporary visas, most of them to workers at big Indian technology firms.
The plan to restrict the popular H-1B visa program comes days ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to New Delhi. India has upset companies such as MasterCard and irked the U.S. government with stringent new rules on data storage. The warning comes as trade tensions between the United States and India have resulted in tit-for-tat tariff actions in recent weeks. From Sunday, India imposed higher tariffs on some U.S. goods, days after Washington withdrew a key trade privilege for New Delhi.
Two senior Indian government officials said on Wednesday they were briefed last week on a U.S. government plan to cap H-1B visas issued each year to Indians at between 10% and 15% of the annual quota. Both officials said they were told the plan was linked to the global push for “data localization”, in which a country places restrictions on data as a way to gain better control over it and potentially curb the power of international companies.
U.S. firms have lobbied hard against data localization rules around the world. The move, however, was not solely targeted at India, the source said. “The proposal is that any country that does data localization, then it (H-1B visas) would be limited to about 15% of the quota. It’s being discussed internally in the U.S. government,” the person said.
(Agencies)
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