India’s Trade Policy

In 1991, India began the process of liberalizing the economy. But it has been gradual-even import licensing (on consumer goods) was not fully removed till 2001. Between 1991 and 2023, tariff liberalization was reversed twice-first between 1996-1997 to 1999-2000 and then from 2018-2019 onwards. Anti-dumping was also used extensively to exclude the imports of specific products from the most competitive sources. Economist and chairperson of the Sixteenth Finance Commission Arvind Panagariya has closely observed the Indian economy over decades and written extensively about it.