India today strongly urged the US to engage in negotiations for the Totalisation Agreement or Social Security pact as its absence is restricting the movement of domestic IT professionals in America.<br/><br/>The issue of Totalisation Agreement was taken up during a delegation-level meeting in New Delhi between the two nations. US Trade Representative Michael Froman was leading the delegation for the 10th India-US Trade Policy Forum meeting. <br/><br/>Briefing media after the meeting, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman hoped that there will be a positive response from the US. The US has entered into Totalisation Agreement with several nations for the purpose of avoiding double taxation of income with respect to social security taxes. <br/><br/>Under this agreement, professionals of both the countries would be exempted from social security taxes when they go to work for a short period in the other country.<br/><br/>On the issues related to intellectual property rights, Mrs Sitharaman said a lot of effort was put in to dispel the misconceptions of the US delegation on India's patent regime. She added that there seems to be a much better appreciation of India's IPR regime by the US side.<br/><br/>The Indian side also raised concerns over visa fee issue. The minister also flagged matters related to greater market access for agri goods like grapes and mangoes and pharma products.Talking about exports of agri items from India, she said mango exports have doubled to the US.<br/><br/>US has recognised two irradiation centres – Vashi and Bengaluru – and are trying to get more irradiation centres so that mangoes from North India can also be exported to the US. Further, she said India called for greater institutionalised mechanism for food safety clearances.<br/><br/>Talking about market access issues related to pharma particularly the Ayush medicines, she gave the example of Switzerland, which has recently passed an Act where Ayush pharma has been given recognition.