News Release

HHS Secretary to Travel to India to Advance Import Safety and Further Partnerships on Health and Science

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt will travel to India in January to seek ways to enhance the quality and safety of Indian food, drugs, and medical products exported to the United States and to build on America's partnership with India on health and science.

While in India, the Secretary will visit sites that produce food, medicine, and other products for export to the United States, as well as health care facilities that are delivering polio vaccine and care and treatment for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. He will meet with senior officials in the Indian Government, business leaders in the export community, as well as university students and faculty.

Secretary Leavitt chairs the President's Cabinet-level Import Safety Working Group, convened in July. In November, the Working Group delivered to President Bush its Action Plan to improve import safety, which included heightened interactions with exporting nations among its recommendations.

This trip will be the Secretary's fourth trip to Asia since taking office at HHS.

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Last revised: January 20, 2009