‘There is a tremendous opportunity now for India for a trade agreement with US’: USISPF CEO Mukesh Aghi

US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) President and CEO Dr Mukesh Aghi believes now might be a tremendous opportunity for India to put forward a trade agreement with the US. He said that president-elect Donald Trump would not pass on the chance to leverage it. 

Speaking with Business Today TV, Dr Mukesh Aghi said, “I think there is a tremendous opportunity now for India to put forward a trade agreement which I think the Trump administration will leverage.” He says that as India forms trade partnerships with the UAE, Australia, is in discussion with the UK and the EU, the confidence in both the domestic market as well as in the political leadership to leverage trade agreements has increased. 

Aghi pointed out that India had previously tried to work out trade deals with both the Trump and the Biden administration, but nothing had worked out. In fact, the Biden administration was reluctant to do trade deals with anybody, he said.

“The US has a trade agreement with Japan and one with Australia. India has some kind of a trade agreement with Japan and Australia. So if you can combine those into a single market that may be an easy way to move forward because now you're security-wise aligned, technologically aligned, and economically aligned also,” Dr Aghi pointed out. 

Dr Aghi underscored the Trump administration’s objective of bringing in more manufacturing back to the US. “I think an opportunity comes in for India to build some kind of a free trade agreement with the United States which was not being considered by the Biden Administration. An FTA between the two countries will basically ensure that the global supply chain moves efficiently from India into the US. India's exports don't get penalised from that perspective,” he said. 

US companies are looking at India from the GCC – global capability centres – perspective, he said, with over 1,600 of those in the country at the moment. “They contribute almost $125 billion exports from India to the rest of the world. So, I strongly believe that while the stress factor between US and China will go up, it is going to put a lot of pressure on US companies to derisk their supply chain from China not only just from the stress factor but also from the duty perspective. India becomes pivotal not only for its skilled resources but also its growing market which is $4 trillion GDP, and is going to go to $5 trillion. So US companies will like to basically leverage that growing market,” he said, giving the example of Apple that now exports from India.