Indo-US Trade Deal Unlikely in Next 4 Years, Says American Expert
News 18Despite India being an important partner for the US geopolitically, a bilateral free trade agreement is unlikely in the next four years regardless of who wins the upcoming presidential elections, a former White House economic adviser said on Thursday. Both US President Donald Trump and his opponent Joe Biden look at India amenably but have their own compulsions not to proceed with such a far-reaching deal, said Todd Buchholz, who served as the director of economic policy at the White House under president George H W Bush. "I find it difficult to imagine that in four years' time, there could be a FTA between the US and India," Buchholz said at an interaction organised by Axis Bank in Mumbai. Biden, who has a lead in opinion polls over Trump, is a multilateralist at heart and also part of the "Washington Consensus", but the pressure groups may prevent such a pact, he said.