India's economic growth potential in US hands: Expert
Noting that US should do more to realise the economic potential of India, a noted American expert has said Washington should start negotiations with New Delhi on a free trade agreement and help it become a member of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
Dan Twining, Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told lawmakers that regrettably the Obama Administration's signature trade initiatives -- Trans Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership -- do not include India.
A primary economic initiative between the two countries has been a modest bilateral investment treaty, which has been stuck in the bowels of the bureaucracy for years, he said.
"At the same time, India has enacted or is negotiating trade agreements with Japan, the EU, ASEAN and a number of other partners, but not the US," Twining said.
India's exclusion from APEC makes little sense for a country that sits in the middle of Asia, is an important trading partner to America, China and Japan, and has an economy that will comprise nearly 20 per cent of global GDP by 2060 according to the OECD, Twining said.
He said to elevate the bilateral economic relations to the strategic level, he believes America and India should launch negotiations for a free trade agreement.
"India will have to undertake far-reaching domestic reforms to qualify. New Delhi might find it easier to undertake these reforms if it can do so as part of a process of acceding to APEC."
An APEC membership, coupled with an eventual FTA with
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