US President Donald Trump will start his first official trip to India on Monday. While Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi share personal chemistry as seen during the latter's trip to the US last year for the 'Howdy Modi' event, relations between the two largest democracies in the world are not without irritants, particularly since Trump took office in 2017.

The two countries have argued over everything from tariffs on farm goods to Harley Davidson motorbikes and price caps on medical devices and India’s new rules on local data storage.

Here's a list of several major irritants in India-US ties:

Trade tariffs

Although not on the scale of Sino-US trade war, New Delhi and Washington are also engaged in a sort of mini trade war with Trump even referring to India as the tariff king.

The United States is India’s second-largest trade partner after China, with bilateral goods and services trade hitting a record $142.6 billion in 2018. Last year, the United States had a $23.2 billion goods trade deficit in 2019 with India, its 9th largest trading partner in goods.

Last year, the US raised tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, including from India. It also withdrew special trade privileges to India under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) impacting $5.6 billion exports from the country. The GSP allowed some Indian exports like textiles and engineering goods, more preferential or duty-free access to the US markets. The measure forced India to also hike tariffs on 28 goods from the US such as apples, walnut, iron and steel products.

H-1B Visas

Restricting foreign workers and immigrants from stealing American jobs was the chief campaign plank of Trump. The Trump administration has not just attempted to reduce the number of H-1B visas issued every year but they have also proposed a steep increase in visa fee to $4000 from $2000.

Earlier, a fee of $4,500 was recommended for L1 visas. The measures will come as a huge setback for all Indian companies. Another draconian measure that may soon come could be barring 50-50 firms from sponsoring employees on H-1B visas into the US.

Yet another restriction that is likely to be soon reviewed by the Trump administration is the H-4 Employment Authorisation Document that allows spouses of H-1B visa holders to legally work in the US.

Indian nationals are the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B vias, which the US issues to get highly qualified professionals to work in the country. Under Trump, Indian IT services companies have seen rejection rates jump from six percent in 2015 to 24 percent in 2019. The Indian government has strongly objected to the Trump administration's restrictive moves pointing to economic cost for the US as well.

According to Nasscom, IT companies contribute about $57 billion to the US GDP and account for over half a million direct and indirect jobs across the US.

Data localisation

As India is asserting its right over its citizens’ data amid an increasing digital footprint, many US companies have raised their concerns over tighter regulation, poor infrastructure and cost obligations.

The RBI in 2018 mandated that payments data had to be stored in India, a move that primarily affects US payment giants Visa and Mastercard. Other government departments too came up with their own proposals. The Trump administration sees New Delhi's efforts to ensure foreign companies store data locally as a trade barrier with the US trade department last year calling it "discriminatory and trade distortive".

India has modelled its data protection law on Europe's General Data Protection Regulation. The Personal Data Protection Bill currently in consideration with the Joint Parliamentary Committee proposes stricter regime and penalties on lack of compliance. According to an Ernst & Young report, European law has cost US Fortune 500 companies up to $7.8 billion and UK's FTSE 350 companies up to $1.1 billion for compliance preparation.

Iran

President Trump's Iran policy has adversely impacted New Delhi's business and strategic interest with Tehran. The first casualty of the US pullout from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and the imposition of strict economic sanctions on Tehran has been India's dependency on diverse sources for oil imports.

Under pressure from the US, Indian oil imports from Iran have steadily declined, which could have a spill-over effect on the construction of Chabahar port as well as in Afghanistan. The Chabahar port is India's Eurasian ambitions as well as an answer to the China-backed Gwadar port in Pakistan as part of the 'One Belt, One Road' or China Pakistan Economic Corridor. India and Iran share a close strategic stance on the role of Taliban in Afghanistan.

In the 1990s, both joined hands in helping Ahmed Shah Massoud and the Northern Alliance against the Pakistan-backed Taliban. As the US readies for a pullout in Afghanistan and as Islamabad-backed Taliban appears poised to once again become the dominant force, India and Iran may require more strategic cooperation.

Russia: Like Iran, Russia to is a target of the US government with the Congress in 2017 clearing the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA). The Act allows for the imposition of sanctions on any country indulging in the procurement of weapons from a foreign so-called “rogue” government. New Delhi’s decision to buy four S-400 Triumf long-range missiles from Russia, worth over $5 billion, remains a major irritant in India-US ties drawing warnings from the US that such an acquisition would trigger sanctions.

Moscow has been the main supplier of defence hardware to India, accounting for more than 60 percent of its total weapon imports during the last five years, according to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute. However, India has attempted to diversify its source for defence systems and weapons, including buying it from the US. During President Trump's visit, India-US are expected to sign more weapons deals.

Huawei

India’s reluctance to ban Chinese firm Huawei to participate in the upcoming 5G trials is yet another irritant. The US says that Huawei has used its global telecom networking contracts to install backdoors and spy on foreigners on behalf of the Chinese government. Washington has managed to sway many allies including Australia in the fight against Huawei. The US state department has discussed Huawei security risks with India in the past.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States on the issue of intellectual property rights ahead of Trump's visit on February 24 and 25.

Washington has for years raised India's regulatory mechanisms on IPR. In fact, India was among 10 others placed on a 'Priority Watch List' by the United States Trade Representative office for IP violations in April 2019.

The report said that while India has taken steps to address intellectual property challenges and promote IP protection and enforcement, “many of the actions have not yet translated into concrete benefits for innovators and creators and long-standing deficiencies persist.

India remains one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.”