Open and shut

India removed barriers to trade in goods in the 1990s. Removing protection brought global competition and raised productivity. But introducing global competition in services is harder. In certain services that are tradable, like legal or financial services, the removal of trade barriers can introduce competition and increase productivity. But these often involve complicated and time-consuming multilateral negotiations. In other services that are not tradable, like retail trade, global competition can be introduced and improvement in productivity can be achieved by opening up the sector to foreign direct investment.

Reducing protection in the market for goods, cutting custom duties on imports, and removing quotas and other restrictions on trade raises few questions today. The case for trade liberalisation in goods is well understood by now. Trade liberalisation exposes local firms to global competition. Domestic firms have to innovate, produce better products, improve their technology, and reduce costs of production when imported products enter domestic markets. Under such pressures, these firms become more productive. These productive firms become exporters. The most productive firms invest abroad. Both face further competition in foreign markets and productivity growth continues. In contrast to the pre-trade liberalisation regime, productivity in the economy is higher and keeps growing. This results in higher growth of incomes and standards of living in the country. Trade liberalisation has transformed many countries, such as those in East Asia.

India has also seen the benefits of reducing protection in goods markets.

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