Accusing developed countries of using the issue of protectionism as a bogey’, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday that India’s annual increase in imports of over 30 to 35 per cent from the United States and the European Union was proof that the Indian economy was not ‘protectionist’.
“Barring some items like wines and spirits where India does have high tariffs, largely tariffs in India are not high. We are unilaterally bringing down our imports duties on manufactured goods from an average 12.5 per cent at present to Asean levels. We can do more, but I want to see what we can get in return [at the World Trade Organisation]. When we unilaterally reduce duties, it is pocketed very easily [by the developed countries],” Nath said at the India Economic Summit.
I will just quote Jagdish Bhagwati (2002) here: But you don't get ripped off. I think that's the wrong way to look at it. My old teacher, a great radical, Joan Robinson at Cambridge used to say, if you throw rocks into your harbor, that's no reason for me to throw rocks into my own. Essentially what she was saying was that it's good for me to have no restrictions--or reduced restrictions on trade because trade leads to gains--true. If your door is closed, you know, I would get less by their trade. But it doesn't mean that I should then close my own door because then I get doubly hurt.
Well, well, it's not just India. FE reports:
Speaking on the sidelines of CII-WEF India Economic Summit, US deputy trade representative Karan Bhatia said, “We are prepared to engage with anyone and everyone on topics like domestic support or on any other subject in the Doha round to resolve problems. But there is no basis for expectations that somehow the US would come forward with a new unilateral offer without seeing any other movement by anybody else.”
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