US lawmakers warn Trump's H1B fee, tariffs on India ‘hurting’ American firms

US lawmakers feature warned that chairperson Donald Trump-led administration's decisions to impose 50 per cent tariffs on bharat and the hiked fee on H1B visas “ ache” American businesses. Popular Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, during the House Foreign Affairs South and Central Asia Subcommittee hearing, said the tariffs announced by Trump “are…hurting American businesses and consumers”, PTI news agency reported.Jayapal further spoke on the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration, saying it has “threatened” people-to-people ties between India and US. Jayapal said these measures are “shutting down legal pathways to immigrate.”Also Read | Modi, Trump discuss trade, defence in 'warm' phone call, agree to stay in touchShe said they are reminiscent of “a legacy of discriminatory quotas” which had earlier “made it extremely difficult for Indians to immigrate in the first place.”Jayapal said that she is able to comprehend the “harms of those policies”, being the only member of the US Congress to have been both on a student and H1B visa. “…I'm committed to making sure that we continue to provide strong legal pathways for people to come to this country from India as well as around the world,” she added.Jayapal also flagged concern over the “anti-Indian hate that has been rising in the United States”, according to PTI. She said that Indian-Americans were important to the US economy and “an integral part” of the American society. She said the Indian-Americans are currently “running major Fortune 500 companies as well as startups, and leading cutting-edge research to save lives.”Visuals of Modi-Putin meet “cause some heartburn” for Congress members: US RepresentativeUS Representative Ami Bera said the visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “cause some heartburn for folks in Congress.”Bera further underscored the “strong bipartisan support” that the US Congress, as well as various White House administrations, have shown towards India-US partnership.“It's clear our interest, from the Congressional perspective and the administration perspective, is a closer relationship, both our economic interests, our geopolitical strategic interests, to create an atmosphere of security, peace, prosperity that both the Indian people want, that we also want,” Bera said.The hearing included remarks from Director of Asian Studies Center, Heritage Foundation Jeff Smith, Executive Director of the Observer Research Foundation America Dhruva Jaishankar and External Senior Advisor, Special Competitive Studies Project Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Program, German Marshall Fund of the United States Sameer Lalwani, PTI reported. It was titled ‘The US India Strategic Partnership: Securing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.’