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Trade agenda gets a second term

The Democrats are more protectionist by nature and the issue of outsourcing came up in a big way during President Obama?s tenure.

The Democrats are more protectionist by nature and the issue of outsourcing came up in a big way during President Obama?s tenure.

At the same time, Obama has been talking of change and I would expect his administration to conduct this change in a positive manner especially because the Americans have been defensive for the last four years. In fact, this is one of the reasons that the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations did not progress much. It is important for these negotiations to progress especially with a watchdog like the WTO.

I hope he uses his second term to take the trade agenda forward and not be defensive as he is talking of a different kind of an administration.

It is important to note that the Americans don?t negotiate any trade deals till the Congress approves it. Till now, the government did not have such a negotiating mandate from the Congress. This will be significant for the US government to engage proactively and keep markets open and avoid trade protectionism.

The writer is the Director-General, RIS

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First published on: 08-11-2012 at 02:49 IST
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