WASHINGTON: Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal has said that India will continue to engage with the US on the proposed social security or totalisation pact and it will take time. The proposed agreement seeks to do away with the requirement for an expatriate in either country to pay for social security schemes of the host country.
He said that the issue should have been resolved earlier when the dimensions were manageable.”Now the dimension of the money collected by the (US) Treasury is so large that for any govt, this will be a major decision,” he said.
“The social security coverage details that we have shared with them, cover about 930 million people in India, more than the required threshold. So we are eligible for a dialogue and resolution of totalisation and bringing in Social Security Agreement.”
On critical minerals, Goyal said India is talking to US to explore opportunities to work together in third countries.
“For example, whether we could look at the critical minerals in third countries to be jointly worked upon by the US and India or investments from third countries for joint projects between the US and India. Critical minerals, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths, play a crucial role in the production of clean energy technologies, from wind turbine to electric cars. Such minerals are in demand for the production of batteries for electric cars.