U.S. Senator John McCain Calls For U.S.-India FTA

WASHINGTON: India and the U.S. should start negotiating on a free trade agreement to achieve full potential of the bilateral ties, a top Republican senator said.

"Our governments are currently negotiating a Bilateral Investment Treaty, which is worthwhile. But why not aim instead for a Free Trade Agreement?" said Senator John McCain.

"India and the United States have, or are negotiating, FTAs with every other major global trading partner, so we are on course to discriminate only against one another. How does that make sense?" he wondered.

Our goal, McCain said, should be to produce a roadmap for concluding an FTA and to start negotiating it.

The Arizona senator was addressing an event at the prestigious Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a top think-tank here.

"We could then work toward India's integration into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, once it (the FTA) is finalized."

Expressing optimism, he said the hurdles could be overcome the way they were surpassed while inking the historic civil nuclear deal.

In 2013, India-U.S. bilateral trade in goods stood at $63.7 billion out of which Indian exports accounted for $41.8 billion. To take the relationship further, he suggested co-development and co-production of defense hardware.

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