India Pushes for Social Security Arrangement in US Trade Deal

India is pushing for a social security component in its ongoing negotiations with the US for a free-trade agreement to help seamlessly cover Indian workers sent on stints abroad by companies, Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday.

- Zia Haq

A similar social-security arrangement was part of a landmark trade deal sealed by the UK and India on 6 May, and it is now standard practice for India to include such a provision in all free-trade deals under consideration, the minister said.

Such arrangements allow both countries to recognise each other's social programmes for workers' benefits so that employees don't lose them while shifting from one nation to the other, the minister said.