India's Trade Policy: The 1990s and Beyond

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...