India-U.S. Trade Forecast to be US$320 Billion by 2018

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Jun. 22 – A report made by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) predicts that India-U.S. trade will amount to US$320 billion come 2018.

The report called the India-US Economic Relations: The Next Decade, says that given the right conditions, merchandise trade could rise to that amount. Moreover, the CII says that the nuclear agreement between the two countries is the start of a new era in bilateral relationship and allows more trade avenues like nuclear energy

“India intends to import 24 reactors in the next 11-15 years, and could create as many as 20,000 new jobs directly and indirectly in the United States from nuclear trade,” the report added.

U.S. Department of Commerce statistics show that the United States is India’s biggest export market and trading partner with bilateral trade reaching US$14.35 billion in 2000 to US$43.4 billion in 2008. For the first five months of the year, bilateral trade reached US$11.5 billion.

The report sees bilateral trade changing from goods and services into high-technology trade.

While visa restrictions and partial openings of sectors can be a barrier to trade, there are areas such as tourism, logistics, healthcare, entertainment and telecom where trade can be significantly stepped up, CII added.