India Is Turning Toward Free Trade, for Some
While officials are making welcome noises about tariff cuts, that’s not necessarily going to help countries such as the US that are engaged in their own protectionism.
Companies such as Amazon may be out of luck.
Photographer: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images
For several years now, India’s annual budget — presented at the beginning of the year — has included a few lines that dismayed economists. Successive finance ministers have raised tariffs, reversing a quarter-century-long trend dating back to when the Indian economy was first liberalized in 1991.
The good news is that the government may be undergoing a change of heart ahead of next year’s budget — or, at least, it may not be quite as willing to revel in protectionism as before. The bad news for US companies is that their own government’s inward turn may still hold them back in India.