Question

Explain in essay form (around 500 words) why it took India so long to open up its trade with the rest of the world. What eventually led to its big trade reforms of the 1990s?

Answer 1

. During the Second World War, there was a basic change in the nature of India’s international trade. It began exporting to Britain large quantities of raw materials but the involvement of Britain in the war restricted its export to India, adequate quantities of goods in return, Such unrequited exports gave rise to sterling balances, which were the features of India’s foreign trade that helped the growth of a favourable trade balance in 1946.

India's Balance of Trade. The balance of trade or Net Exports is the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports of output in an economy over a certain period of time

Foreign trade in India includes all imports and exports to and from India. At the level of Central ... There are records throughout history of India's trade with foreign countries.

It began exporting to Britain large quantities of raw materials but the involvement of Britain in the war restricted its export to India, adequate quantities of goods in return, Such unrequited exports gave rise to sterling balances, which were the features of India's foreign trade that helped the growth of a ...

A country's trade balance equals the value of its exports minus its imports. ... If it was purchased or made in a foreign country, it's an import. When exports are larger than imports, it's a trade surplus. Most nations view that as a favorable trade balance.

India is a newly industrialised country, has a history of collaboration with several countries,

big trade reforms of the 1990s

1. In security policy, the big event of the last decade was the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. In international economics, the big event of the 1990s was the decline of Japan and the associated “Asian model” of capitalism.
2. By the middle of the decade, the US found itself in an unexpectedly dominant some would say hegemonic position in the international economy, due to a combination of unexpected, rapid decline in Japan and resurgence at home.
3. At the same time, the “Washington consensus” recipe for growth was increasingly adopted around the world. This presented the US with opportunities that scarcely could have been imagined in the previous decade, but equally with responsibilities on the global stage.

The result was unevenness. Sometimes, the United States seized the opportunities and took ambitious leadership positions, finalizing the Uruguay Round, NAFTA, and global agreements in telecommunications, financial services, and information technology, launching the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), elevating the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, driving the international financial rescue of Mexico and later of East Asia, negotiating the US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement, and brokering China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).