The rhetoric against globalization is disturbingly shifting away from strengthening domestic industry through necessary economic reforms to shielding it from global competition. This is not a good sign. The role of high tariffs in promoting domestic industries is not impressive. It can have several unintended consequences. The recent inept bureaucracy-led short-sighted action of prioritizing a tariff hike above difficult domestic policy reforms, without taking into account potential costs, points to the urgency of such convergence. This can be achieved by introducing process reforms in the formulation of trade and industrial policies through a whole-of-government approach.

(Live Mint)