In the past 27 years, the tendency has been to shed all barriers to trade, both tariff and non-tariff. As per the constitution of the World Trade Organization, or WTO, if any country raises barriers to trade, the affected country can use the dispute settlement mechanism to reverse the same.
Till recently, no country was arguing explicitly in favour of protectionism; rather, barriers erected earlier were being removed. In India, prior to the WTO, import duties of more than 400 per cent used to be imposed on many commodities, and there were more than 1,400 items on which quantitative restrictions (QRs) were imposed. As against this, today, leaving some exceptions, import duty of 0-10 per cent is imposed, and QRs have been totally removed.
Because of aggressive trade by China…