India Turns Its Back on Freer Trade
Refusing to join a massive, regionwide pact is a sign that the country now fears the world rather than embracing it.
There are few Indian voices left in favor of openness.
Photographer: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty ImagesIndia, which has for some years now been raising walls against the rest of the world, appears to have definitively turned its back on freer trade. Fifteen of the 16 countries involved in negotiations agreed on Nov. 4 to sign up to the giant trade agreement known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. Only India, after months of uncertainty, chose to hold back for the foreseeable future.
The decision wasn’t free of acrimony. The Chinese claimed that India had raised new demands at the last minute; the Indians insisted that they were simply holding out for the same concessions they always had. These include special protections from cheap Chinese imports and a tighter integration of services trade into the agreement.