The trade experience of 2018 provides a sense of what could happen in 2019 vis-à-vis India-U.S. trade relations. Both countries engaged in a tit-for-tat tariff policy, giving momentum to global trends towards trade protectionism. This show of strength against Washington’s deep-pocketed lobbies was, however, at odds with India’s original stand on this issue, which was pro-globalisation. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at Davos in January 2018 gave considerable time to the reasons why trade protectionism was a worrisome phenomenon. With the U.K., India’s trade in 2019 depends on the twists and turns of Brexit politics, both in London and in Brussels, with the March 29 deadline for the same looming ever closer.

Source: The Hindu January 06, 2019 18:45 UTC