Zeebiz Bureau
Washington: Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao has said she has raised the outsourcing ban and H1B Visa fee hike issues with the US authorities. Rao was speaking to an Indian news channel Saturday morning.
The Foreign Secretary is in Washington to prepare ground for US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in November.
The Visa fee hike is costing the India IT sector USD 200 million.
“I was able to convey to them that the issue was of serious concern to our industry and essentially was perceived as a rise in protectionist sentiment in the US and we needed to address these issues,” she told the news channel.
The outsourcing ban and the Visa fee hike issues are likely to figure out in detail when Commerce and Industries Minister Anand Sharma meets US Trade Representative Ron Kirk on September 23. The minister will be in Chicago and Washington from September 20-23. Besides the trade representative, he will also meet with a host of business heads to push the bilateral trade relations.
