Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Better Governance for
Inclusive Growth
CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture Series 2013-14

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth
CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture Series 2013-14
Published by

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©CUTS International, 2014

Citation: (2014), “Better Governance for Inclusive Growth:
CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture Series 2013-14”
CUTS International, Jaipur

The material in this publication may be reproduced in whole or in
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appreciate receiving a copy of any publication, which uses this
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resale or other commercial purposes without prior written
permission of CUTS. The views expressed here are those of the
speakers and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the positions
of CUTS International and the institutions with which the speakers
are affiliated.

ISBN: 978-81-8257-216-4
Printed in India by Jaipur Printers Private Limited, Jaipur
#1409

Contents
Key Messages

i

About the Speakers

vii

Foreword I
– Nitin Desai

xvii

Foreword II
– M L Mehta

xxi

Preface
– Pradeep S Mehta

xxiii

Synopsis
– Rajeev D Mathur

xxix

I. Governance & Reforms
1.

Inclusive Growth: What Does It Mean?
– Montek Singh Ahluwalia

3

2.

Fiscal Federalism: An Unequal Balance
– Yashwant Sinha

19

3.

The Transformatory Potential of Aadhaar:
Providing Empowerment, Choice and Convenience
– Nandan Nilekani

4.

Emerging Powers of Global Economic Governance
– Rakesh Mohan

31

41

5.

6.

Economic Governance in India:
Quality of Political Leadership Important
– Rajiv Lall
Consumer Financial Services
– Sothi Rachagan

47

57

II. Regulatory Issues
7.

Trade, Competition and Consumer Protection
– Supachai Panitchpakdi

75

8.

Capacity-Building in New Competition Systems
– Bill Kovacic

83

9.

Why People Fail in the Struggle with Poverty
– Eleanor M Fox

91

III. Trade & Development
10. 30 Years that have Changed the Face of World Trade
– Pascal Lamy

101

11. The Future of Global Trade Policy
– Martin Wolf

107

12. Global Trade Can Help us End the Need for Aid
– Justine Greening

123

13. Whither the International Trading System
– Jagdish Bhagwati

131

14. Trade and Domestic Reforms:
The Australian Experience
– Peter Varghese

137

15. India’s Export Competitiveness, Prospects
and Challenges: The Role of Trade Policy
– Rajeev Kher

155

IV. Regional Integration
16. India’s Economic Integration with Asia
– Salman Khurshid

167

17. Regional Integration and Sustainable
Development in the East African Community
– Richard Sezibera

177

18. Regional Integration as a Tool for
Poverty Reduction in West Africa
– Hanna S Tetteh

187

19. Regional Trade: A Catalyst for Growth and
Sustainability of Small Businesses in
the Southern African Region
– Caleb M Fundanga
Annexure:
Press Releases

203

217

Key Messages
“Consumer organisations have focused on the problems
relating to consumer credit and banking and insurance services.
They have emphasised the need to focus on transparency, fair
treatment and effective redress…our current focus will not in
itself help address the systemic flaws in the system. The current
institutional structure for financial services regulation itself
needs to be reformed”
Sothi Rachagan
Vice Chancellor, Perdana University of Malaysia
“It is not mandatory to have an Aadhaar card (like the
enrollment under national population register, which
determines citizenship), the UID number will be a gateway to
number of services like opening bank accounts, applying for
passports, driving licences or LPG connections as the service
providers will accept it as poof of KYC (know your customer)
documentation”
Nandan Nilekani
Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India
(2009-March 2014)
“The government has come out with twenty-five monitoring
indicators to chart the country’s inclusive growth over a period
of time, the same will soon be available on the Planning
Commission of India’s website for public access”
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India
(2004-May 2014)

ii

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

“There are parallels between the evolution of CUTS and the
growth of the multilateral trading system over the last thirty
years, in their quest to develop truly global organisations that
are open to organic growth, reflecting the ever-changing global
economy”
Pascal Lamy
Director General, WTO (2005-2013)
“Emerging markets which have successfully adopted the
market economy have done so concurrently with the creation
of strong competition regimes”
Supachai Panitchpakdi
Secretary General, UNCTAD (2005-2013)
“Globalisation saw little reversal during the recent crisis mainly
because of WTO, the role of social safety nets and the success
of emerging economies in global trade, among others”
Martin Wolf
Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times
“UK government and DFID firmly believe that trade will play
a key role in poverty reduction and the developing countries
should be helped to reap the benefits of free and fair trade”
Justine Greening
UK’s Secretary of State for International Development
“India needs to have a cognitive and accommodative
conversation with China and called for an integrated approach
towards engaging Asian countries to face the various
economic, political and social challenges. The conversation
should be accommodative from time to time with domestic
need. India and China would work together one day but not
today, as it’s too early”
Salman Khurshid
Minister of External Affairs, India (October 2012-May 2014)

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

iii

“Regional integration is one critical factor in efforts to achieve
sustainable development in East Africa. This sustainability does
not mean the maintenance of the status quo but should look
at the long term development needs of the region. The region
should integrate because it is the right thing to do at this time”
Richard Sezibera
Secretary General, East African Community
“The short term pain that we have to bear in our bid to
overcome the challenges of regional integration would lead to
long term gain for everyone...We welcome the opening of the
CUTS Centre in Accra and look forward to its active
participation in providing research support to Ghana and the
West African region on critical economic policy issues”
Hanna S. Tetteh
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration,
Ghana
“Recruitment of the right people and the right level is one of
the key ingredients to ensure success of a competition agency”
Bill Kovacic
Professor, George Washington University
“By 2030, China’s economy and by 2060, India’s economy
could be much larger than the economy of United States, if
one goes by current projections. The rate of change that has
been predicted, if it does come around, it would be quite
dramatic in the next 20 years. These changes do indicate that
changes at the level of global governance to have to happen,
for example the emergence of G-20 countries, which is more
participatory”
Rakesh Mohan
Executive Director, IMF

iv

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

“The multilateral trading system is dead and the Doha round
is in trouble largely because of lack of US leadership”
Jagdish Bhagwati
University Professor, Columbia University
“Barriers can be created by various means and mechanisms,
such as cartelization, public and private restraints and thus, it
is important to empower the institutions to tackle such
barriers. This, is one the key roles played by Competition
Policy, which empowers people and institutions to access and
benefit from economic opportunities, by bringing down such
barriers”
Eleanor Fox
Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade Regulation, NYU
“Neighbours and boundaries cannot be changed, but mind
sets will need to be changed...trade between India and Pakistan
is a win-win situation for both the countries, as supported by
studies done undertaken by CUTS and SDPI”
Khurram Dastagir Khan
Minister of State for Commerce and Textile Industry,
Pakistan (2008-December 2013)
“The Planning Commission is the biggest obstacle in the path
of federalism. It should be restructured to do perspective
planning and implementation without being empowered to
micro manage the states’ financing and functioning, which is
the task of the Finance Ministry”
Yashwant Sinha
MP& Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Finance (2010-March 2014)

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

v

“After its many failures, the centralised state everywhere has
lost a great deal of legitimacy...A major dilemma of governance
institutions in a developing country is a trade-off between
autonomy and accountability, that is inevitably involved in most
governance, including in the centralisation vs. decentralisation
debate”
Pranab Bardhan
Professor of Economics at the University of California,
Berkeley
“Economic Governance cannot be seen in isolation and would
need to go hand in glove with political governance”
Rajiv Lall
Executive Chairman, IDFC Ltd.
“One can change a country by changing trade and industrial
policy...Through a sustained domestic reforms programme for
an open, market-driven economy, Australia has attained
greater competitiveness and prosperity”
Peter Varghese
Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Government of Australia
“India needs to mainstream its foreign trade policy with the
governance system of the country so as to enhance its
competitiveness in a holistic and dynamic manner”
Rajeev Kher
Commerce Secretary, Government of India
“Regional integration is an important factor in fostering
competitiveness and ultimately efficiency among small and
medium businesses”
Caleb Fundanga
Former Governor, Bank of Zambia &
Currently President, Institute of Finance and Economics

vi

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

About the Speakers

Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Inclusive Growth: What Does It Mean?
New Delhi, June 04, 2013
Montek Singh Ahluwalia is former Deputy Chairman of the
Planning Commission, Government of India. For his
outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service,
he was conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Vibhushan’ by
President of India in 2011. He joined the Government of India
in 1979 as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance after
which he held a series of positions. In 2001, he was appointed
as the first Director of the newly created Independent
Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund.

Jagdish Bhagwati
Whither the International Trading System
New York, September 25, 2013
Jagdish Bhagwati is an India-born, naturalised
American, economist. He is a Professor of Economics and
Law at Columbia University. Bhagwati is notable for his
researches in international trade and for his advocacy of free
trade. He currently serves on the Academic Advisory Board
of Human Rights Watch (Asia) and on the board of scholars

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

of the Centre for Civil Society. Bhagwati has previously served
as an External Adviser to the Director General of the WTO
in 2001, as a special Policy Advisor on Globalisation to the
United Nations in 2000, and as an Economics Policy Advisor
to the Director-General of the GATT. He is also a member of
the International Advisory Board of CUTS Centre for
International Trade, Economics & Environment.

Eleanor M. Fox
Why People Fail in the Struggle
with Poverty
New York, September 25, 2013
Eleanor M. Fox is the Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade
Regulation at New York University School of Law. She has
served as a member of the International Competition Policy
Advisory Committee to the Attorney General of the US
Department of Justice and as a Commissioner on President
Carter’s National Commission for the Review of Antitrust
Laws and Procedures. She is also a member of International
Advisory Board of CUTS Centre for Competition, Investment
& Economic Regulation. Fox received an honorary doctorate
degree from the University of Paris-Dauphine in 2009. She
was awarded an inaugural Lifetime Achievement award in
2011 by the Global Competition Review for “substantial,
lasting and transformational impact on competition policy.”

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

ix

Caleb M Fundanga
Regional Trade: A Catalyst for Growth
and Sustainability of Small Businesses in
the Southern African Region
Lusaka, March 10, 2014
Caleb Fundanga is currently President, Institute of Finance
and Economics. He served as Governor of the Bank of Zambia
after serving as Senior Advisor to the President of the African
Development Bank in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. He is a Member
of the African Export and Import Bank Board and Executive
Committee. He also serves as Board member and Vice
Chairman of the Zambia Revenue Authority. He is the
Chairman of the Junior Achievement Zambia Board and is
also served as Chairperson of the Programmes Committee of
the African Research Consortium.

Justine Greening
Global Trade Can Help us End
the Need for Aid
London, July 15, 2013
Justine Greening was appointed Secretary of
State for International Development in September 2012. She
is the Conservative MP for Putney, Roehampton and
Southfields. Justine was a finance manager at Centrica plc
before being elected as a Member of Parliament in May 2005.
Following her election she was appointed as a Vice Chairman
of the Conservative Party, with responsibility for youth. She
was Economic Secretary to the Treasury from May 2010 to
October 2011 and Secretary of State for Transport from
October 2011 to September 2012.

x

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Rajeev Kher
India’s Export Competitiveness,
Prospects and Challenges:
The Role of Trade Policy
New Delhi, April 04, 2014
Rajeev Kher, a senior IAS officer, has been appointed Secretary
in Department of Commerce. Kher, a 1980-batch IAS officer
of Uttar Pradesh cadre, was Special Secretary, Department of
Commerce under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Salman Khurshid
India’s Economic Integration with Asia
New Delhi, August 13, 2013
Salman Khurshid is an Indian politician and
presently the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of External
Affairs. He belongs to the Indian National Congress. He is a
lawyer, and a writer who has been elected from Farrukhabad
Lok Sabha constituency in the General Election of 2009. He
became the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce in June
1991, and later became the Union Minister of State for
External Affairs. He started his political career in 1981 as an
Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office under
the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi.

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

xi

Bill Kovacic
Capacity-Building in New
Competition Systems
Washington DC, September 23, 2013
Bill Kovacic is currently the professor of Global Competition
Law and Policy at George Washington University, where he
is also Director of the Competition Law Centre. Before joining
the GW Law School in 1999, he was an FTC Commissioner
and served as Chairman. Previously, he was the FTC’s General
Counsel, and also worked for the Commission initially as a
staff attorney in the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office
and later as an Attorney Advisor to former Commissioner
George W. Douglas. Before he became a Commissioner,
Kovacic was the E.K. Gubin Professor of Government
Contracts Law at GW University Law School.

Rajiv Lall
Economic Governance in India:
Quality of Political Leadership Important
Mumbai, January 21, 2014
Rajiv Lall is the Managing Director and Vice Chairman of
IDFC Ltd. Before joining Warburg Pincus in 1997, he was the
Head of Asian Economic Research with Morgan Stanley Asia
Limited. During his career spanning over two decades, he
worked with the World Bank, Warburg Pincus, Morgan
Stanley and Asian Development Bank. He was also an
Assistant Professor with Florida Atlantic University. Lok
Foundation, along with Lall’s Lok Capital Group, provides
Social Venture Capital to promote Social Entrepreneurship in
education, healthcare & low-cost housing segments. He is
also a member of the Governing Council of CUTS International
Public Policy Centre.

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Pascal Lamy
30 Years that have Changed
the Face of World Trade
Geneva, July 09, 2013
Pascal Lamy is a French Political Adviser and Businessman.
He served two terms as Director General of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) from September 2005-September 2013.
Lamy was also European Commissioner for Trade and is
currently the Honorary President of Paris-based think tank
Notre Europe. He received honorary degrees from eight
universities as well as several awards and decorations from
the French government and other countries world-wide.

Rakesh Mohan
Emerging Powers of Global
Economic Governance
Washington DC, September 23, 2013
Rakesh Mohan is Executive Director at the International
Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, USA representing India,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan since November 2012. He
is also Chairman, National Transport Development Policy
Committee, Government of India, in the rank of a Minister of
State. In addition, he is Vice-Chairman, Indian Institute of
Human Settlements. Prior to his current position at the IMF,
Mohan was Professor in the Practice of International
Economics of Finance, School of Management, and Senior
Fellow, Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, Yale University
from July 2010.

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

xiii

Nandan Nilekani
The transformatory potential of Aadhaar:
Providing empowerment,
choice and convenience
Jaipur, January 24, 2013
Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur, bureaucrat and
politician. He was former Chairman of the UIDAI. After a
successful career at Infosys, he headed the Government of
India’s technology committee, TAGUP. He is a member of
Indian National Congress since March 2014. He is the
President of the governing body of NCAER. He is also a
member of the board of governors of the ICRIER. In 2006,
Nilekani received the Padma Bhushan.

Supachai Panitchpakdi
Trade, Competition and
Consumer Protection
Geneva, July 09, 2013
Supachai Panitchpakdi was Secretary-General of UNCTAD
from September 01, 2005-August 31, 2013. Prior to this, he
was the Director-General of the WTO during September
2002-September 2005. In 1986, he was appointed as Thailand’s
Deputy Minister of Finance, but when the parliament was
dissolved in 1988 he left politics and became president of the
Thai Military Bank. In 1992 he returned to politics and became
Deputy Prime Minister until 1995. In November 1997 he
returned to be Deputy Prime Minister and also became
Minister of Commerce.

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Sothi Rachagan
Consumer Financial Services
Kuala Lumpur, December 18, 2012
Sothi Rachagan was Professor and Dean of the
Faculty of Law University of Malaya till 2000 when he became
Consumers International’s Regional Director for Asia and the
Pacific. In 2005, he became the Vice President (Academic
Affairs), Nilai University. In 2013, he became the Vice
Chancellor of Perdana University. He is a Commissioner of
the Malaysia Competition Commission and Chairman of its
Working Committee on Advocacy. He was elected President
of the IACL in 2011.

Richard Sezibera
Regional Integration and Sustainable
Development in the East African
Community
Nairobi, August 19, 2013
Richard Sezibera is a Rwandan physician, politician, diplomat
and civil servant. He is the current Secretary General of the
East African Community. He was appointed to that position
by the East African Community Heads of State in April 2011
for a five-year term. In 1999, he was appointed Ambassador
of Rwanda to the United States of America, with concurrent
accreditation to Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. In 2008,
Sezibera was appointed Minister of Health in the Rwandan
cabinet.

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

xv

Yashwant Sinha
Fiscal Federalism: An Unequal Balance
New Delhi, December 18, 2013
Yashwant Sinha is an Indian politician and a
former Finance Minister of India under Prime Minister
Chandra Shekhar and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
and Foreign Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Cabinet. He is
a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, currently the
largest Opposition party in India. He joined the Indian
Administrative Service in 1960 and spent over 24 years holding
important posts during his service tenure. He served as SubDivisional Magistrate and District Magistrate for four years.
He was Under Secretary and Deputy Secretary in the Finance
Department of the Bihar government for two years after which
he worked in the Ministry of Commerce as Deputy Secretary
to the Government of India. He was also Principal Secretary
to Chief Minister of Bihar.

Hanna S Tetteh
Regional Integration as a Tool for Poverty
Reduction in West Africa
Accra, August 26, 2013
Hanna Serwaa Tetteh is a Ghanaian barrister and politician.
She is the current Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ghana. She
is also the Member of Parliament for the Awutu-Senya West
constituency. Tetteh is a Director of Accra Hearts of Oak
SC. She worked as a Legal Officer with the International
Federation of Women Lawyers. Over the next year, she worked
in private legal practice at the Ansa-Asare and Company
Hencil Chambers in Accra, Ghana. In 1995, she served as a
legal officer with the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice in Ghana.

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Peter Varghese
Trade and Domestic Reforms:
The Australian Experience
Canberra, February 03, 2014
Peter Varghese is Secretary of the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, Australia. Prior to this appointment, he
was Australia’s High Commissioner to India and DirectorGeneral of the Office of National Assessments. Varghese was
Australia’s High Commissioner to Malaysia and also served
overseas in Tokyo, Washington and Vienna. He was appointed
an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 for
distinguished service to public administration. He was awarded
a Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of
Queensland in July 2013 in recognition of his distinguished
service to diplomacy and Australian public service.

Martin Wolf
The Future of Global Trade Policy
London, July 15, 2013
Martin Wolf is a British journalist, widely
considered to be one of the world’s most influential writers
on economics. He is the Associate Editor and Chief Economics
Commentator at the Financial Times. Wolf was joint winner
of the Wincott Foundation senior prize for excellence in
financial journalism in both 1989 and 1997. He won the RTZ
David Watt memorial prize in 1994. In 2000, Wolf was
awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire). In 2012,
he received the Ischia International Journalism Award.

Foreword

T

hirty years ago Pradeep Mehta set off to establish an
organisation that would serve the interest of the ordinary
consumer. Over these years, under his dedicated and inspiring
leadership, an extraordinary institution has grown from its
base in Jaipur, India to several centres in India and to Lusaka,
Accra and Nairobi, Geneva and Hanoi. Pradeep Mehta is a
familiar figure at trade and development oriented international
gatherings and CUTS has built up a reputation as an intelligent
and articulate interlocutor in multilateral institutions. It has
also broadened its agenda to cover not just consumer protection
but also trade, competition policy and regulatory design,
amongst other things, so that it could speak with authority
not just on consumer protection measures but on a wide range
of policies that affect the choices available to consumers. In
the spread of its influence globally and the breadth of its agenda
CUTS is a unique star in the universe of development NGOs.
This volume brings together the lectures that were delivered
by eminent scholars and policy makers in five continents, to
celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of CUTS. The geographical
spread of the events demonstrates the global reach of CUTS
and the eminence of the lecturers testifies to the respect that
CUTS and Pradeep Mehta command in the corridors of power
and the groves of academe. The lectures cover four broad
themes – governance & reforms, regulatory issues, trade &
development and regional integration. These themes illustrate
the broadening of the consumer protection agenda that CUTS

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

has pursued. The choices that a consumer faces are influenced
far more by the state of competition nationally and globally
and trade policies, competition policies and the independence
and effectiveness of sectoral regulators than by consumer
protection policies on labelling, information, fair advertising,
redress of grievances, etc. CUTS has pioneered the view that
fair and open trading systems and a vigorous maintenance of a
competitive environment are absolutely central to the
protection of consumer interests. The lectures included in this
volume bring this out quite clearly.
Certain themes stand out in the lectures. One is the role
that open trading systems can play in narrowing the gap
between developed and developing countries. Another is the
connection between trade policies and domestic competition
policies-one cannot reduce trade barriers and allow open
access to foreign suppliers while retaining barriers to entry
for domestic producers through measures like reservation of
sectors for the public sector or small industries. One can also
argue that a vigorously competitive domestic environment that
encourages new entrants and stimulates innovation will make
it easier to open trade possibilities. Regional integration
appears in this scenario as a half way house that makes the
process of a complete opening up of trade options more
manageable.
The theme of governance that is prominent in several
lectures is a very broad one. In some ways it is even more
central to the consumer interest than even trade and
competition policies. Governance that is corruption-free,
transparent, non-discriminatory, fair and equitable in its
treatment of all citizens is the sine qua non for all other policies
to work effectively. The contributions in the lectures touch
on several dimensions of this theme.
Thirty is an age at which an individual changes from being
a bright and promising player to a seasoned professional in his

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

xix

or her chosen space. CUTS at thirty started this transformation
some time ago. In it’s chosen space of consumer affairs in the
broadest sense it is recognised as an authoritative voice, not
just in its home country, India, but in many others and in
multilateral institutions like the WTO and the World Bank.
The respect that it commands is the reason why so many
eminent scholars and policy makers have joined in celebrating
its thirtieth anniversary and contributed their ideas on the
policy space that CUTS covers in its work. This is a volume
that is not just celebratory but also instructive and will be
read with attention by many. May CUTS continue to serve us
with analysis, advocacy and training to serve the interests of
the largest interest group in the world-the consumer.

Nitin Desai
Former Under Secretary General
United Nations

Foreword

T

o commemorate its 30th Anniversary, CUTS organised a
series of public lectures by eminent persons around the
world including India on themes in which CUTS is
engaged. These lectures broadly fall under the rubric of good
governance for inclusive growth and have been put together
in this publication under the title ‘Better Governance for
Inclusive Growth’.
The speakers for these lectures were chosen carefully
spanning geographies, disciplines and their rich experience in
corporate and public sector. In sync with CUTS engagement,
themes for these lectures ranged from trade and development,
competition and economic regulation, governance and regional
integration. Each speaker has great eminence in his/her domain
and so carried conviction with the audience for what he said
in his oration.
The public discourse on development process in India got
greatly polarised between votaries of growth and social
justice. The debate has been joined by leading economists such
as Amartya Sen and J. Dreze on one side and Jagdish Bhagwati
and Arvind Panagariya on the other side.
The votaries of growth insist that the policies must focus
on growth first so that there are resources available to bring
up the poor. The proponents of social justice and welfare insist
that basic entitlement of the poor for quality education, health
and other HRD constituents must come first and then growth
would pick up by the interplay of the dynamic forces generated

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

by the process and outcomes of human resource development.
Looking at the ecology of contemporary development process,
CUTS has tried to highlight through these lectures the
importance of trade and development in an interdependent
and globalised world. The lectures also highlighted importance
of economic reforms, role of competition and regulation and
governance and regional integration of trading blocs.
CUTS has been working on these issues for over three
decades with the range of its activities spanning from grass
roots level to the regional, national and international level. It
has focused on development of good field practices through
village level work with the rural communities, on policy issues,
trade and competition at national and international levels
through quality research, documentation and participation in
exchange of views at various forums.
Any articulation by CUTS is based on evidence based
research and good grass roots experience and clear academic
understanding. It has steadfastly endeavoured at maintaining
high academic rigour in its work and publications. The same
thread runs through the public lectures included in this
publication. I do hope that readers would find its contents of
this publication very provocative and thought generating.
M L Mehta
Former Chief Secretary of Rajasthan and
President, CUTS

Preface

A

s we progress into the next decade of CUTS
International’s 30 years of work as a think and an action
tank promoting consumer welfare, new challenges and
opportunities in global development will emerge. These are
to be collaboratively addressed by international organisations,
governments, and civil society. Because, the global economy
is ever more inter-connected and cross-cutting, impacting not
only markets, but local communities and ordinary consumers.
It will become more so because of an increasing connect
between real and financial economies.
To move positively into the future, we urge various
communities – from local to international – that inclusive and
sustainable growth must be an established universal goal for
human development. Ensuring that while trade relations build
larger and more complex agreements, governments grow their
economies, and goods and services breach national boundaries,
it should be a universally agreed axiom that consumers, those
impacted the most, are empowered. Inclusive growth will thus
not only bring all stakeholders together to deal with future
challenges, but will also provide opportunities for sustainable
solutions through a stronger connection with the development
of human beings.
As such, serious consideration is needed with regard to
the resources required to deal with the emerging development
challenges, the current situation of political will and how it

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

can be harnessed to create better governance for inclusive
growth, and bridging the macro-micro gaps ahead of us.
The history of this century will judge us, the community of
citizens, in what manner and how far we have been able to
address these challenges. There is an imperative on our part
to anticipate the vicissitudes of history by looking at it as a
dialogue between the past and the present while addressing
the future. The purpose of this anthology is to provide food
for thought and actions for this dialogue to happen in a
pluralistic sense – not as this or that but as this and that.
From its modest beginning in 1983, CUTS has grown
significantly as a local and global action group in addressing
challenges to enhance consumer welfare. From a nongovernmental organisation working locally to inform
consumers of their rights, CUTS has progressed to policy
research and network-based advocacy on various issues
pertaining to trade, regulations and governance.
Furthering its Mission – Consumer Sovereignty in the
Framework of Social Justice, Economic Equality and
Environmental Balance – CUTS has also grown geographically
with offices in Geneva, Hanoi, Nairobi, Lusaka, and Accra. It
is from this considerable expansion that CUTS has become a
leading voice for consumers of the South and beyond, working
with numerous organisations and partners at the international,
national, and local level.
As CUTS continuously keeps an eye toward these and other
future challenges, in order to commemorate its 30 th
Anniversary, a series of lectures was organised in cities around
the world. Building from its extensive experience promoting
consumer rights and welfare, they addressed issues relating
to CUTS’ future interventions to promote inclusive growth
from the point of view of their impact on consumer welfare in
light of the contemporary policy discourse on trade,
regulations and governance.

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Importantly, this lecture series not only provided a platform
to state and non-state actors academic and practical
development discourse but it helped strengthening relationships
among governments and civil society; thus instilling CUTS’
core approach to consumer sovereignty through policy
research, advocacy, and networking. In short, it helped in
broad-basing our messages to a huge audience all over the
world –Value for People – our credo.
Pursuant to these beliefs, this lecture series was comprised
around four areas of discussion, viz. trade and development;
competition and economic regulations; governance; and
regional integration.
It is evident that the future of trade is inescapably linked
with development. As Martin Wolf, Chief Economic
Commentator of the Financial Times said: “The most important
economic and political consequence of contemporary
globalisation has been the ‘great convergence’ of average
incomes between the high-income countries of today and the
emerging countries. A hyper-globalised world will need a
greater degree of global governance”.
In addition to the core focus on research, networking, and
advocacy, CUTS strives to be a leader in capacity building in
the global development system. In the sphere of competition
and regulations, CUTS has developed key knowledge
components such as on the importance an effective competition
regime for both market efficiency and societal equity. Providing
his testimony, William Kovacic of George Washington
University noted: “CUTS has its deep roots inside emerging
market environments which has brought much more attention
to local conditions.” This will help furthering the agenda for
inclusive growth as CUTS builds the capacity of its partners
through its rooted knowledge of local communities and
economies.

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Governance, whether at the international, regional,
national, or local level, is facing greater challenges from
decreasing trade barriers, increased competition, and a deeper
connectivity between societies. All of which will require an
inclusive approach to development that is sustainable. As Rajiv
Lall, Executive Chairman, IDFC Ltd., pointed out: “[g]ood
economic governance depends on political governance […]
The success or failure of governance in India cannot, should
not, must not be gauged only in terms of our economic
performance. Such as evaluation must also take into account
what else we have achieved since independence”.
As leaders look toward the future challenges of effective
governance, CUTS will work with all stakeholders to
encourage openness in considering all areas of governance economic, political, and social - and their consequences on
development and the impact on consumers.
In the more immediate vicinity to India is the growing South
Asian region. India, as a critical player in economic and social
development, should create more opportunities to guide the
region forward through inclusive growth that will be
sustainable from the regional level down to the national
consumers. CUTS has and will continue to enhance its close
relationships with India’s neighbours for promoting greater
trans-boundary cooperation leading to more regional
integration. Salman Khurshid, former External Affairs Minister
of India, commented: “I do believe that the greater example
we give to the world and our region, the more successful we
will be seen as having contributed and fulfilled our destiny
and our responsibility to Asia.” For more integration with its
neighbours, India should not wait for perfect moments but
make them perfect. A new model of South-South cooperation
should emerge.
In short, the key message of this anthology is: achieving
better governance for inclusive growth will require a multi-

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disciplinary approach, including building the capacity of
stakeholders for good governance, effective regulations and
rules-based trade. In the framework of inclusive growth,
responsibility should be shared and no one should be left
behind. As we create better links between social, political,
and economic development, the advantages from job creation,
infrastructure development and investment will be better
realised. Better governance will also make institutions more
accountable and operate more effectively. Finally, the regional
and global partnerships forged in the emerging development
discourse and through inclusive growth will be able to tackle
new and upcoming challenges such as climate change and its
consequences on food-water-energy security.
I hope that this anthology will provide a fresh set of thinking
on how the new dashboard of inclusive growth should look
like, particularly in respect to the Post-2015 Agenda for
Sustainable Development Goals. We should not get bogged
down to a few indices of growth. Unless all elements of this
dashboard work in tandem we will not be able to move
forward effectively.
Finally, I would like to thank all the contributors and
speakers for agreeing to come on our platform, and sharing
such a vast knowledge and experience on the various important
topics. CUTS International will take this knowledge as a vital
tool for moving forward in its interventions on future
challenges in development and will expand its cutting-edge
work to ensure sustainable inclusive growth for consumer
sovereignty.
Pradeep S Mehta
Secretary General
CUTS International

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Synopsis
o mark its 30 th Anniversary, CUTS International
organised a series of lectures around the world, including
India, of eminent scholars and practitioners on topics of
interest and in line with CUTS’ work agenda. Earlier in 2003,
when celebrating its 20th Anniversary, CUTS Partnership
Conclave took a close look at why and how governance matters
in poverty reduction. On its 25th Anniversary in 2008, it looked
at issues relating to development of global partnerships as many
of the emerging challenges were, and still are, of the nature of
global public goods. This helped the organisation in its strategic
planning for the next 25 years.
The lecture series examined whether the resources are
adequate in meeting contemporary and emerging development
challenges; is political will lacking and why it may be so and
what are the macro-micro gaps and how these may be bridged.
These were analysed in the context of the fact that the rest of
this decade will experience a number of international events
to shape and reshape the future direction of global development
discourse. While that will be state-led, the lecture series not
only provided a much-needed platform to non-state actors to
express their views and concerns on contemporary
development discourse but also, and more importantly, to
strengthen the state and civil society relationship through
historical evidence, and not just views.
The aim of the lecture series was to shape CUTS’ future
interventions which would help in promoting inclusive growth.

T

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

The lectures are grouped in four sets dealing with governance
& reforms, regulatory issues, trade & development; and
regional integration.

Governance & Reforms
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning
Commission of India acknowledged that inclusive growth is a
multi-dimensional concept and giving it a single definition
would not be easy. Tracing the history of the Indian thought
process of growth, he made the point that the concept of
inclusive growth has now evolved into the concept of inclusive
and sustainable growth, but there is first the need to grapple
with growth per se, without ignoring the sustainability
dimension. Touching upon the regional inequality, he stressed
that the issue of inclusive growth has graduated from being
inter-state to intra-state with animated discussions on the
urban-rural divide, jobless growth, inequality across socio
economic groups, etc. Inclusiveness is no more confined to
two or three dimensions which has prompted identification
of ‘25 monitorable indicators’ that would by the mid-term
appraisal of the 13th Plan give a better picture of how much
inclusive growth we managed (see page no 219).
Carrying the discussion further, Nirupama M Rao, India’s
Ambassador to the US spoke on how inclusive growth is the
sine qua non of the Indian development paradigm. Citing the
Food Security Act, 2013, the Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme, the Right to Education and the Right to Information,
she reiterated the national commitment to ensure that the fruits
of growth and progress reach out to all the citizens. She,
however, cautioned that we need to be conscious that there is
no leakage or siphoning off of resources and the government
agencies are held accountable to their actions (see page no
239).

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The lecture by Yashwant Sinha, MP & Chairman,
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on cooperative
federalism relied on the Indian Constitution that created a
‘Union of States’ and not a ‘Federation of States.’ This is now
being differently interpreted as states are asserting themselves
making the central government cede more and more powers.
This resulted in changes of our system of devolution of funds
particularly after 1967 when the first non-Congress
governments were elected in some states; discussions in the
case of APMC and Essential Commodities Act since the
former is a state legislation and the latter is to be implemented
by the states; current debate over the Goods and Services Tax
since the power of taxation have been given directly to the
states under the State List and so on. Further the Planning
Commission, instead of engaging in perspective planning is
micro-managing the state’s finances. He concluded by saying
that for unity of purpose at the state level, a more liberal
approach by the Government of India and co-operative
federalism is the way forward (see page no 251).
Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Economics at the University
of California, Berkeley spoke on the related issue of
decentralisation and development, inter alia bringing out the
dilemmas and trade-offs. He said that the centralised state,
after many failures, has lost a great deal of legitimacy.
However, decentralisation has also evinced much scepticism
and voices of potential pitfalls. He defined decentralisation as
devolution of political decision making to local level small scale
entities at village or municipal levels below provincial or even
district levels. Citing an example of dilemmas, he mentioned
the one between autonomy and accountability which
necessitates creation of arms-length institutions to insulate
the system from political interventions on the one hand while
too much insulation often results in too little accountability
on the other. There are similar dilemmas between local and

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supra-local knowledge; capture versus exit by the local elite;
intra-regional versus inter regional disparity in access to
benefits, etc (see page no 254).
The Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer scheme may have
generated criticism for glitches in its implementation, but its
architect, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Unique Identification
Authority of India is optimistic about its chances, calling its
benefits multiple and far-reaching. Speaking on the
transformatory potential of Aadhar, he said that it would not
only be a first identity card for many people in rural areas but
would also work as a proof of identity for a host of services,
which can be electronically verified within seconds, saving
people time and money, and avoiding inconvenience (see page
no 217).
Rakesh Mohan, Executive Director, IMF opined that by
2030, China’s economy and by 2060, India’s economy could
be much larger than the economy of US, if one goes by current
projections. The rate of change that has been predicted, if it
does come around, it would be quite dramatic in the next 20
years. These changes do indicate that changes at the level of
global governance to have to happen (see page no 239).
Rajiv Lall, Executive Chairman, IDFC Ltd. stated that
economic governance cannot be seen in isolation and would
need to go hand in glove with political governance. He
suggested that we must experiment with new institutional
structures (‘national institutions’ like the Election Commission)
that facilitate and support policy making from outside the
traditional and very partisan parliamentary legislative process.
Giving an example, he said that there is a need to refurbish
the Planning Commission of India so that it becomes a true
national level institution, such as the RBI to deal with evolving
economic governance challenges. Another possibility is to build
autonomous regulatory authorities that have legal powers to

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xxxiii

make policy decisions. For this to happen, a statesman in the
country is needed to take lead (see page no 256).
Kevin Davis, Vice Dean, Beller Family Professor of Business
Law, New York University briefly spoke about the importance
of tackling corruption. He highlighted the actions being taken
at the international level with the passing of the Anti-Bribery
Law in the UK followed by a large number of countries,
OECDs efforts, International Anti-Money laundering law, UN
Convention on Corruption, etc. Investors use indicators such
as global indicators on corruption when taking decisions on
whether to invest in a country or not (see page no 243).
Sothi Rachagan, Vice Chancellor, Perdana University of
Malaysia focussed on economics of consumer financial services
that permit the providers to treat consumers with disdain;
lack of coherence in regulation of such services; and the
misguided tendency to present financial literacy as a substitute
for regulation. Arguing that we need to adopt a consumer
focus, he suggested that we go back to the basics to analyse
purposes for which consumers access financial services and
the problems faced by them. His contention is that the current
focus will not in itself help address the systemic flaws in the
system. The current institutional structure for financial
services regulation itself needs to be reformed.

Regulatory Issues
Speaking on trade, competition and consumer protection,
Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General, UNCTAD
mentioned the work UNCTAD and CUTS have been doing
together on the subject. Picking up threads from the 1990s
that witnessed a series of mega mergers like Boeing, McDonnel
Douglas, GE, Honeywell and also Microsoft he traced the
concerns of the competition agencies, different interpretations
on these mergers and the concurrent movement of Europe
into a single market entity where the theme of competition

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was predominant. Today, there is proliferation of competition
rules and the number of countries using them is up to 122 as
against 50 in the 1990s including countries in transition that
have emerged as market oriented economies. However, while
framing rules for competition, the economic rules need to be
compatible and, therefore, there must be some balance
between economic regulation, enabling state and the need to
enhance competition. Similarly, sectoral policies are emerging
that need regulatory bodies which have to coexist with national
competition policies. Finally cross-border mergers and the
increasing size and activities of transnational corporations call
for national policy makers to be working together (see page
no 223).
Bill Kovacic, Professor George Washington University
spoke about the need for capacity building in the new
competition systems by sketching six types of knowledge that
make the difference between an ineffective institution and a
less effective institution: concepts of competition law and
economics; local economy and business; skills; agency
administration; agency leadership; and competition system life
cycle phenomena. Referring to CUTS’ micro economic
research projects across the world such as the 7Up project,
he acknowledged its contribution in adoption of competition
policies by focussing on the local conditions inside emerging
market environments (see page no 239).
Eleanor M Fox, Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade
Regulation, New York University spoke about the vicious
circle that keeps people poor in developing countries and
offered solutions of a virtuous circle that can save them.
Nations succeed when they develop inclusive political and
economic institutions that unleash the potential of each citizen
to innovate and develop and they fail when institutions extract
resources from the many by the few. Summarising why people
fail, she said that it is because children do not have enough to

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xxxv

eat; corrupt leaders and national legislators build perverse state
barriers through self-interest or lack of concern and the
developed nations exploit the vulnerable populations. Referring
to good competition policy as the unnamed, under-appreciated
ninth MDG, she said that it helps nations achieve inclusive
economic institutions (see page no 243).

Trade & Development
Pascal Lamy, Director General, WTO stated that there are
parallels between the evolution of CUTS and the growth of
the multilateral trading system over the last 30 years in their
quest to develop truly global organisations that are open to
organic growth reflecting the ever-changing global economy.
Talking about changes over the last 30 years in world trade,
he mentioned the rise of the emerging countries and the
attendant shifting balance of economic and political power
and maturing of global trade; how today trade is less about
products and services and more about trade along value chains
which span not just across countries but also continents; how
Doha presented an opportunity to address barriers to trade;
how WTOs dispute settlement system brought about time
efficiency and quality judgements and finally how the
negotiating dynamics have witnessed a huge change (see page
no 223).
Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial
Times spoke on the ‘great convergence’ of average incomes
between the high income countries and emerging nations being
the most important economic and political and political
consequence of contemporary globalisation resulting from
openness to trade and investment; dematerialisation of trade
and rising importance of services; decline in barriers to trade
in goods but continued high barriers to trade in services;
widespread embrace of globalisation; similarity of North-toSouth trade and investments flows to South-North flows and

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rise of China. He touched upon challenges from outside the
trading system such as the link between trade and exchange
rates, climate change and inequality of trade and wages. Talking
about challenges from within the trading system, he mentioned
failure to complete the Doha Round and consequent loss of
legitimacy, mega-regional negotiations (TPP and TAP) and the
need to bring in the new hegemonic trade power of China
fully into the system. While the march of globalisation
demonstrates the triumph of the global trade regime, the
difficulties it now faces shows that the triumph is a troubled
one needing a greater degree of global governance (see page
no 225).
Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International
Development, Government of the UK mentioned that the firmly
believes that trade is the most important driver of growth and,
therefore, keeps development at the heart of its approach to
international trade, not by sheltering poor countries from
competition but by opening markets to them. The main reasons
for many developing countries not trading enough include:
lack of access to markets; lack of enabling environment,
particularly poor infrastructure and weak regulatory system;
and not being able to be part of global value chains that can
create more and better jobs (see page no 225).
Jagdish Bhagwati, Professor Columbia University stated
that the multilateral trading system is dead and the Doha Round
is in trouble largely because of lack of US leadership. He said
that the multilateral negotiations are crippled and they received
another blow by the formation of the regional and bilateral
deals (TPP and TAP) with trade unrelated issues. What is
needed is retention of the multilateral trade negotiations aspect
of the WTO to prevent international trade from degenerating
into a chaotic, hegemonic, power-led kind of a system (see
page no 243).
Khurram Dastagir Khan, Minister of State for Commerce
and Textile Industry, Pakistan is of the opinion that India needs

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xxxvii

to address Pakistan’s concerns with regard to tariffs and nontariff barriers, especially in the textiles and agriculture sector,
and until market access is provided let us call it a level playing
field again. Pakistan exports products of these sectors. A large
section of Pakistani businesses remain apprehensive about
opening up Pakistani markets to India (see page no 247).
TCA Raghavan, India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan
said that such discussions are very important for bilateral
relations and the stability of those relations for the future. He
congratulated SDPI and CUTS International because apart
from academic rigour what is most important is the
commitment and public advocacy which these institutions have
shown that in full measure (see page no 247).
Peter Varghese, Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs,
Australia spoke on trade and domestic reforms and drew
comparisons relevant to India from the Australian experience.
He emphasised on the fact that domestic industry policy and
trade liberalisation are two sides of the reform coin. These
are, often, technical economic discussions. Reform is a
permanent challenge, the ingredients for successful reform
remain the same: recognising the need to adapt; policy that is
anchored in clear evidence, and a political leadership willing
to make the case for change. Commenting on Australia’s ability
to trade with and invest in India, he felt that it would inevitably
be driven in part by decisions of the Indian government on
economic reform and financial opening (see page no 258).
Speaking on India’s export competitiveness, Rajeev Kher,
Commerce Secretary, Government of India felt that India needs
to mainstream its foreign trade policy with the governance
system of the country so as to enhance its competitiveness in
a holistic and dynamic manner. Exports should no longer be
considered as a function of surplus generated over and above
domestic consumption. Further, States need to get
mainstreamed into the export objectives by looking at

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incentivisation, promotion and encouragement in the context
of their contribution to exports. It should be an intrinsic part
of a vibrant economy. Imports also play a very important role
because more than 60 per cent of our imports are
intermediaries to manufacturing. Intra-industry trade is
growing (see page no 263).

Regional Integration
Speaking on India’s integration with Asia, Salman Khurshid,
Minister for External Affairs, India feels that the criticality of
the issue comes in concentric circles. The closest and the
tightest circle is within the country itself and is about the way
we approach the opportunities and challenges. The larger circle
brings in the immediate neighbourhood of SAARC nations
that have a shared destiny in many ways. Then there are other
neighbours such as China and Central Asia and at the end is
the largest circle of the Indian Ocean. All of these give a pivotal
role to India. This role comes with the onus of setting an
example for the world to be seen as having contributed and
fulfilled our destiny and our responsibility to the world (see
page no 229).
Richard Sezibera, Secretary General of the East African
Community (EAC) mentioned that regional integration is one
critical factor in efforts to achieve sustainable development in
East Africa. This sustainability does not mean the maintenance
of the status quo but should look at the long term development
needs of the region. We must integrate to expand our markets
and productive capacities. In East Africa, the Customs Union
and Common Market have shown promise and now we look
forward to a Monetary Union Protocol and an eventual
Political Federation. Mention was made of the EAC-CUTS
collaboration through initiatives such as ‘Promoting
Agriculture-Climate-Trade Linkages in the EAC’ and the EACGeneva Forum (see page no 231).

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xxxix

Hanna S Tetteh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional
Integration, Ghana stated that we our bid to overcome the
challenges of regional integration would lead to long term gain
for everyone. She welcomed the opening of the CUTS Centre
in Accra and looked forward to its active participation in
providing research support to Ghana and the West African
region on critical economic policy issues. While applauding
the efforts of CUTS, she opined that it has developed a
successful methodology of connecting grassroots to the
policymakers especially through applied research, advocacy
and networking (see page no 235).
Caleb M Fundanga, Former Governor, Bank of Zambia &
currently President, Institute of Finance and Economics spoke
on the issue of regional integration, which is an important
factor in fostering competitiveness and ultimately efficiency
among small and medium businesses. He said that it is
important that Zambian products must be of high quality
because they will have to compete against similar products
from the rest of the region. Aggressive marketing and proper
branding and packaging are also key ingredients. He, however,
observed that Zambia’s external trade was being hampered
by trade barriers and anticompetitive practices by other
countries/firms within the region (see page no 260).

* Page numbers indicate the Press Releases of the Lecture

Rajeev D Mathur
Executive Director, CUTS International

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

I. Governance &
Reforms

1
Inclusive Growth:
What does it Mean?
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India

T

he title “Inclusive Growth: What does it mean” in the
Indian context, has multiple meanings, each of them quite
genuine and underlining the questions being raised. I intend
to explore the underlying multi-dimensional nature of the
questions, that may relate to some of the concerns we have
not only in India, but all over the world. In some ways, the
world is becoming as concerned about a number of things
which we were earlier concerned with, so we are actually in
good company from that point of view.
These days we also refer to “Inclusive and Sustainable
Growth” because sustainability is a very important dimension.
But I am going to talk more about “Inclusiveness” as other
simple categories like “Growth with Poverty Reduction” or
“Growth with Justice” or “Growth with Equality”, suggest a
uni-dimensional aspect, other than growth. I think when we
talk about Inclusive Growth we are trying to give an impression
that actually what you call Inclusiveness is a kind of Growth
which addresses very large number of different concerns.

4

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

In the history of Indian thinking on planning, we have never
pushed for growth as some kind of strengthening-the-nation
kind of a concept, which though relevant, ignores the question
“why do we want growth.” The Indian thought process has
addressed the need for raising the level of living to acceptable
levels of the people at large. This can be traced to 1938 when
Subhash Chandra Bose, who was then the President of the
Indian National Congress, appointed a Committee under
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, later to be our first Prime Minister.
This Committee basically argued for the need to improve levels
of living. We are a very poor country, and to bring everyone
to a reasonable level of living, we need to increase national
wealth. The idea was to expand the pie as there isn’t enough
to go around if you are only redistributing.
This is a very different situation from a rich country which
may have only 10 per cent of the population in poverty, and it
is possible to solve their problems without necessarily having
to expand the pie. But in case of a poor country where income
levels are quite low, if you want to increase the income levels,
welfare, well-being, etc. of a broad mass of the population,
the total GDP, i.e. production has to grow.
Earlier it was thought that with growth everybody will
benefit. It was believed by many that if we achieve, say, 8 per
cent growth everyone’s income would grow by 8 per cent.
But it was realised quite early that this is not the way the
system works. It is possible to have a growth rate which is
high, but it is also possible that the same is not broadly spread
raising concerns and doubts over the growth process.
In India for the first several decades the principal failure
was that we never got to the growth target. Underlying growth
targeting was a belief that if the growth takes place then there
will be more goods that will be distributed and everybody’s
income will go up. Somewhere around the 1970’s Ashok Mitra
wrote a piece in the Economic and Political Weekly, arguing

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

5

to get rid of these growth fetishes and go for what really
matters, which is poverty reduction. Maybe we could achieve
poverty reduction without worrying about growth.
At the same time in 1970 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan
was talking about “roti, kapda and makaan”, and in India we
were pursuing the slogan “gareebi hatao”. The real question
which was relevant was, is it that growth cannot be achieved,
or is it that the policy framework that we were following was
not the one that would achieve that growth? That question
was not, in my view, adequately addressed.
It is, therefore, quite reasonable to say that the main focus
in 1970s was delivery to the poor whatever problems we were
having with growth. Around the 1990’s, it was becoming quite
clear that many other countries were growing rapidly. It was
not just Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan (called the
gang of four or the four tigers), but many other Southeast
Asian countries. Rethinking took place in India, too, and the
economic policy began to change. Many people would say, it
changed too slowly, but without going into that question, it
did change and led to a build-up for growth.
In India, in the early 1991 onwards a very strong systemic
liberalisation and opening up of the economy etc. were
outlined. Even those policies were implemented very slowly
and it is interesting that when we began the process of
liberalisation the growth rate was about 5.7 per cent which is
not bad, but even in 1990’s after the liberalisation the growth
rate remained at 5.7 per cent. I think it was because the changes
were done slowly and by the decade of 2000 the growth rate
really began to accelerate.
I think the debate in India began to change. Earlier when
the liberalisation was first introduced in 1991, the government
was rightly criticised that it would ruin the economy but by
the year 2000, it began to be conceded that may be these fellows
know something about how to get growth going. But the attack

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

changed to yes you are getting growth, but what kind of
growth, it’s not inclusive enough.
I want to emphasise conceptually that the reason we used
the term ‘inclusive’ in the 11th plan, (we still use it in the 12th
plan), is that we recognised that the growth plus demand, is
not just a demand for any one thing. I have got a list here of
items, and I can list several dimensions all of which are relevant
for inclusiveness. Let me just go through them very quickly.
The first issue is does growth reduce poverty? There is a huge
literature. At one time, other than Surjit Bhalla, nobody in
this country seemed to be willing to believe that growth was
reducing poverty and people were saying that growth is making
the rich richer and the poor poorer etc. The second one is – is
growth coming at the cost of equity? With growth we are
becoming more unequal. That’s a much stronger test because
you can become a little unequal, and still reduce poverty a lot,
but it is a separate dimension, and you can’t say no-no I don’t
care about it.
I would say that a growth process that doesn’t reduce
poverty is really not worth it unless poverty is down to under
10 per cent. But the growth process I would say certainly
should not be increasing inequality too much. What is important
is not so much equality, but “social mobility” because the
concept of equality itself can be when you describe it in terms
of GD co-efficient. You can have a situation where the income
inequality as measured by the usual measures – GD co-efficient
etc. is roughly stable, is not actually improving or could even
be marginally deteriorating. If there is social mobility, many
people at the bottom are getting opportunities to get to the
top and displacing people at the top who are then going lower,
so it’s a kind of social churn.
My guess would be that one can easily imagine a situation
where people would be willing to trade off social mobility
against the static concept of equality. There is something quite

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

7

depressing about the society, where if your great grandfather
was in the top 10 per cent then your father was also in the top
10 per cent, and you also are in the top 10 per cent as opposed
to a society where your great grandfather was actually in the
bottom 10 per cent, but your father was in the next 20 per
cent and you are in somewhere in the middle. It is possible to
have such a social churn without affecting equality in the
overall and for a highly participative and a democratic country.
What is really important is for the young and growing to rise
in social mobility.
I should add that we do not have any data on social mobility.
It is very difficult because in its absence you cannot have
transition matrixes and panel data over time. You have
anecdotal data and sociological information, but it is not
possible easily to determine whether over time intergenerationally we are seeing more social mobility or less.
When liberalisation was first introduced, suddenly the
regional dimension of liberalisation became an issue, and people
said that this liberalisation is going to help the better off states,
because they are going to be able to take advantage, they are
better placed, they have better infrastructure. It was in the
80’s that Ashish Bose coined the phrase, “BIMARU” – Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Then later he
added Orissa, because Orissa had the same characteristics,
but he spelt it “BIMAROU”. If you look at the data it is true
that in the 9th and the 10th plan these states were growing
slowly. But if we look at the data since 12th plan the most
important achievement is that the BIMAROU states are now
growing much more rapidly. One of them, namely Bihar, is
actually growing very rapidly indeed, but others are doing quite
well, and in fact, the Prime Minister in one of his speeches
recently said that we may have to relegate the term BIMAROU
to history, which is a huge achievement for the country.

8

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

So, regional inequality is important, but the concept of
region is now not just limited any more to states. People say
Maharashtra is clearly one of our better performing states,
but what about Marathwada and Vidarbha regions? Similarly
Karnataka is doing well, but what about North Karnataka?
So the concept of backward parts of an otherwise nonbackward state have become quite important and certainly at
the district level the Government of India recognised this by
introducing “Backward Regions Grant Fund”, which covers
a very large number of districts (about 250 plus), which are
spread over a number of states including states that are actually
growing faster – Maharashtra being one, Andhra Pradesh being
the other.
The regional equality concept is not just better balanced
performance across states, but also within states. It is
interesting that the ratio of per capita income of the richer
states to the poorer states is 5:1 (if you look at Maharashtra
and compare it to Bihar in terms of per capita). But within
states, these ratios can also be quite high so that is yet another
dimension in which growth has to be inclusive.
Then you have the “urban-rural” issue. Many people say
that growth is only for urban areas, and rural areas are badly
hit. This is totally different from the state issue, because every
state can be growing equally, and within each state the urbanrural divide can be getting worse. It is an environment in which
you cannot say that inequality is either improving or worsening.
It is very easy to define a structure where inequality is not
changing, because its people are moving – the richer people
are moving from rural areas to urban areas, and people left
behind in the rural areas are not any poorer, but relative to
the urban they are. This dimension worries people who want
greater equality between rural and urban areas.

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

9

Then there is the concept of “jobless growth” which is
now an international buzzword. At every G20 meeting you
have somebody from the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) saying that you must not only have better growth, but it
also a job-creating growth. Job creating growth may not
necessarily be linked to poverty. The worry in places like
Europe and the US is not that the new phenomena is bad for
the poor, its actually bad for the middle classes because they
were otherwise well off until recently but are now getting
squeezed and the super-rich, (the top 1 per cent) in these
countries, are getting all the gravy. This is mirrored in our
own context also.
In my view, income is really not the main or only issue
because there are many things that you cannot buy from your
income such as health, education, sanitation, clean drinking
water, etc. Such services should be available through publically
funded or public delivery systems.
That is another dimension which is different from the
income flow that GDP growth produces. You can have a major
failure in the delivery of public services, with a direct impact
on welfare. Both the National Planning Committee and the
Bombay Plan said health and education will be provided by
the state. So the question arises, how good a job is the state
doing in providing these? You could have a situation where
everything else is fine you know growth is good, inequality is
OK, poverty is going down etc., but if you are failing on delivery
of these services, it is a genuine failure.
Another factor which is very important in our context is
the inequality across socio economic groups. Let’s assume the
scheduled caste, the scheduled tribes, and the minority
Muslims are the lower end of the income spectrum. Any
poverty reducing strategy for, say, the scheduled castes will
certainly give benefits to them. One view could be that we are
going for higher growth, which is poverty reducing, and

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

therefore the scheduled caste are benefiting. But you can turn
that argument on its head; what is the objective? Is the objective
to raise people above poverty, and since most people who are
in the scheduled caste group are somewhere below the poverty
line, they also benefit, or is the objective to equalise inter group
income. I think if you look at any reasonable expression, the
long-term objective must be to equalise inter-group income.
We need to be asking – is the gap between the scheduled
caste and the rest of the population narrowing or not, is it
narrowing fast enough? I have looked at the data and it was
quite interesting that between 1993-94 and 2004-05 there is
clear reduction in the gap. The gap is still there, but the gap
between the rest of the society and the scheduled castes is
actually narrowing; but not so much for the scheduled tribes.
Then, when you take into consideration the period 2004-05
to 2011-12 even the scheduled tribes gap starts narrowing. So
here’s a good example where obviously affirmative action type
policies have for long been focussed on the scheduled caste,
but we have also referred to the scheduled tribe and actually
it wasn’t working very much. More recently certainly between
2004-05 and 2011-12 that seems to have begun to work.
When you say that the action has begun to work and take
credit, you have to ask yourself how fast is it working.
Experience of other countries in eliminating deep-seated
differences does take a long time, but at least the debate is
being conducted at a different level with other group issues
like gender balance, etc. No society has a chief general balance,
so one should be readily able to say that we haven’t either.
The Planning Commission also focusses on marginalised
groups, that are not the scheduled caste and tribes, but are
very major parts of our population, such as the differently
abled people. Three and half per cent of our population suffers
from one or the other disability. Is the society looking after
them or not? We all have been praying for doing something

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

11

for them and it is very recently that we have begun to focus on
it. I am not saying that we are succeeding, and their
expectations are also actually quite modest. I have a group
coming to me and saying that we are very glad that you have
mentioned this in the plan, and then they quite rightly say,
what about doing A, B and C? Then there are other groups –
primitive tribal groups; even these are very small groups, which
were formally criminalised tribes and so on.
So what is inclusiveness? We recognised that any effort to
reduce inclusiveness to one, two or even three dimensions is
doomed to be unacceptable. So in the plan we have identified
“25 monitorable indicators”. Each of these is very poorly
measured.
It is quite conceivable that the worst statistics we produce
are the statistics on employment. I will make a comment on
that, because many of you will have heard people say that last
5 or 6 years have been years of jobless growth, whereas the
previous period was the period when employment increased
by so much. Between 1993-94 and 2004-05, it is true that
employment increased, but the labour force increased much
more and therefore the rate of unemployment actually
increased. After 2004-05 the labour force did not increase
much, so not surprisingly employment also did not increase
much so the rate of unemployment actually fell.
If you want to glorify the last several years you will say this
is the first time that the unemployment rate has fallen, and if
want to criticise, you can argue that in our society, people
cannot afford to be unemployed, and therefore if we cannot
talk about the quality of employment, talking about total
employment is really not all that useful. Having said that let
me say I think that the problem of quality of employment is a
serious one. The main point I am making is that if you are
getting the growth you also have to be able to show

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

improvement in the 25 monitorable indicators, which have
been laid out in the plan document.
Unfortunately the data which measures progress on these
indicators is not available like the price index every month. It
is delayed quite a bit so even by the end of the 12th plan we
will not have all the data for the monitorable indicators.
Probably, at the time of mid-term appraisal of 13th plan, all
this data will be available and then one will be able to say,
how much growth we managed, and how much did it relate
to these 25 monitorable indicators. You can never achieve
100 per cent, but if you show reasonable progress on a very
large number of these 25 monitorable indicators, you should
be in a position to declare a modest victory. Even then it is
almost impossible to be sure that you will get progress in every
one of those monitorable indicators.
Now let me step back a little and say, that until recently,
the whole debate was – you are getting a lot of growth, but
what about inclusiveness? Of course, right now we are in a
position where we are not getting the desired growth. The
world also grew more slowly, but my take on the last year if I
were presenting a government assessment is that yes, it is a
temporary slowdown, we know why it happened, partly
because of the global situation about which we can do little,
but partly a lot of domestic constraints which we now have to
address. Since the global economies are going to be weak, the
compulsion to take care of your own backyard is that much
stronger. There is lot we can do, but if you look at what has
been the recent growth performance of the Indian economy, I
mean the averages, and not the last year, is what matters.
We have looked at the last 10 years, and yes people will
say that this period had a lot of good years for the global
economy, so we have subjected the time series data to statistical
filtering and when you do that, the average of the clean series
is about 7.5, but not 5, so I have no hesitation, whatsoever, in

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13

saying that if we take the corrective steps that are necessary,
we will get back to about 7 per cent. I wish I could say this
year, but if it doesn’t happen this year, may be over a twoyear period. That’s the growth performance that I believe this
economy is now capable of, and frankly if things turnout well,
and we do even better domestically, we can do better than
that.
The real question therefore is on inclusiveness. Have we
got our act together on inclusiveness? There is a sort of an
assumption at times, that inclusive growth means growth is
not enough; you got to add some inclusion to it and that is
what I would call the programme approach. Government does
that and if you were to ask to government if its only interest is
in growth, they will say not at all, because here are our
programmes and some of those programmes are very clearly
building a social security infrastructure programme. They are
actually programmes that will feed into the growth process
because they produce a healthier and more educated
population. Not just because of social welfare, they also feed
into the growth process. If you do not have health, and you
don’t have education, you are not going to get sufficiently
healthy population to generate a sensible growth rate, and the
same thing would be true of sanitation and clean drinking
water. Equally on the growth side, if you do not have growth,
you are not going to have the resources needed to fund these
programmes.
Now I find a lot of people accept the proposition that yes
growth is necessary, because it produces the resources which
enable us to fund inclusiveness programmes, but I think they
should recognise that growth directly impacts inclusiveness
also. For example, if you have a growth rate which is based on
a strong agricultural performance, which is our strategy at
the moment, as opposed to a growth rate which, say, is based
on mining and highly capital intensive industry, you are going

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

to have a very different inclusiveness outcome. People
underestimate impact of a growth strategy which generates a
type of growth which inherently will generate a more broad
income base.
I did a little calculation, and one of the achievements of the
last 10 years compared to the previous period – agriculture in
the 11th plan grew at about 3.6 per cent compared to growth
of 2.9 per cent in the previous period. If instead of growing,
agriculture continued to grow at 2.9 per cent instead of 3.6
per cent, then agriculture income would have been 7 per cent
less in the terminal year. The impact on the incomes of poor is
very substantially improved if you can bring your agriculture
growth rate up to 4 per cent or so which, I believe, we are
now within a shooting distance of.
Where we have not done so well, I think, is in manufacturing
and generating a labour intensive manufacturing growth. We
have done very well on services that has generated many
positive things. We have not achieved our objectives, or are
even close to achieving our objectives on manufacturing and
more importantly the kind of manufacturing that we have done
well in is not the kind of manufacturing that produces jobs for
a large number of young people, who have limited skills.
Actually, for social cohesiveness, looking ahead, it only make
sense if: (a) you can educate and skill them; and (b) run the
economy in a manner in which you will produce enough jobs
in manufacturing to take them out of agriculture.
Some people often say that falling employment in agriculture
is a sign of success while others get upset. But if you accept
the fact that GDP growth in agriculture is not going to be
faster than 4 per cent in real terms, and if you believe that
GDP growth in the economy as a whole could well be 8 per
cent and if the population growth at the economy as a whole
is around 1.4 per cent, then per capita GDP growth for the
economy as a whole is likely to be around 6.4-6.5 per cent.

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15

Now if agriculture is only going to grow at 4 per cent the only
way per capita income in agriculture will grow at the same
rate as for the economy as a whole is, if employment in
agriculture falls at 2.4 per cent per year. I am not saying that
people should be thrown out of agriculture, that would be
terrible, but you want a growth process wherein people
spontaneously move out of agriculture, it will improve
inclusiveness.
Unfortunately, many of the critics of the government policy
regarded it as a criticism that farmers do not want to stay in
farming. I do not know what the definition of success would
be, because to really succeed, we need fewer people in farming
at much higher income levels and the subsistence farming has
to get out of the picture. The problem is that at the moment,
people are probably moving out as they are expecting to get
good jobs and growth and prosperity. It is not clear that they
are getting the jobs they want, and I hope, the jury is still open
on this, but if it goes on for another 10 years, it would not be
sustainable.
When we talk about inclusive growth, we need to get away
from mouthing useless slogans and we need to analyse
successes and failures. On the issue of employment most
economists will tell you that the reason we do not have an
employment enhancing manufacturing process is that we have
labour laws are too restrictive and inflexible, and that I have
talked to lots of small entrepreneurs and every one of them
agrees with this. The government knows that this is a problem,
but also it is a politically sensitive issue. The official position
of the government is that we need labour laws to be more
flexible, but we will want to generate a consensus with labour.
In my view, the time to push on that side is after we get the
growth back, because this 5 per cent growth is simply not a
basis for raising this difficult issue. We could just carry on a

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

growth process which is based on services and capital intensive
industry, with no expansion of labour intensive industry.
China has the most remarkable success in absorbing people
of relatively moderate skills, skilling them a bit, and then
involving them into relatively simple manufacture. Chinese
are going to vacate this area, and the real question is, is it
going to be taken up by Vietnam, Bangladesh, and the
Philippines, or is India also going to get some piece of that. To
my mind, it depends on three things: (1) can we improve our
infrastructure? Manufacturing competitiveness is powerfully
impacted by the quality of infrastructure and therefore, this
should be a very high priority; (2) can we do something about
the whole skill generation process. Also, quite frankly, do
something about the management of land and urbanisation,
so that new manufacturing units can be setup, and not run
into the kinds of constraints we notice around; and (3) do we
need more flexibility in our labour laws?
In my view, we should fix the infrastructure problem first.
It is tough, but whatever needs to be done should be done.
When we have done that I think we should address the issue
of flexibility or inflexibility of labour laws.
In the process, particularly in a democratic country, there
has to be social credibility where the society has to accept
that what is happening is good for it, in a broad and general
sense. People feel there is governance failure with much
corruption, cronyism and I say this, because people are very
familiar with this issue from the newspapers as part of our
public debate. But quite honestly, it is there in every country
at the moment. We still have to address this but I think we
need to face this very important issue.
In the western countries there is a very strong negative
feeling about the corporate sector, dominantly about the
corporate financial sector. It is not about the rest of the
corporate sector. Here, it has got translated into a generalised

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

17

suspicion of the corporate sector, and one reason for that is
the presence of crony relationships. It is really connected with
the issue of how you allocate scarce resources.
I think the good news is that these issues are not being
swept under the carpet. They actually are being addressed,
but we are completely obsessed with how some particular
thing in the past happened/didn’t happen, who should be held
responsible. But if we ask ourselves, are we taking the
structural steps needed, so that in future the same problems
will not arise, my guess is that we are. So the real issue is, how
will all of this play out? I think if you take a fair look at what
has happened in the last several years, the sense in which we
have succeeded in many of the dimensions of inclusiveness is
not adequately recognised.
If you forget about the 5 per cent growth, the numbers
towards inclusiveness are actually quite impressive. There is
no question that poverty is falling faster than it did before and
when the latest numbers for 2011-12 become available this
will be totally clear; there is a significantly faster rate of decline
in poverty. If you look at agriculture, which is after all one of
the determinants of faster fall in poverty, it is absolutely clear
that it has grown faster than it did before. If you ask what’s
happening to rural prosperity it is absolutely clear that per
capita rural consumption between 2004-05 and 2009-10
increased at about 4-5 times faster than it did in the previous
period. If you ask about rural wages, these too increased much
faster in the second period, not just because of Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MNREGA), but because of more investment in infrastructure,
and because of faster growth in agriculture.
One dimension where we admit that the performance is
very poor, is in the areas of health. But Bill Gates mentioned
in an interview that in health, India is doing lots of good things.
That is not enough recognition of the fact that the glass is

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

definitely not full, but may be as the Prime Minister said it is
filling up.
Two years ago we had not eliminated polio. Today, we
have. Those who feel that the Indian system cannot deliver
looking at this fact should say well you know it can. Then you
can legitimately ask why on earth is immunisation stuck at 70
per cent? Well you can say earlier it was only 45 per cent. I
think we can certainly ask, why cannot it be 95 per cent now.
I think why people are really concerned is malnutrition, as the
Prime Minister himself has said that malnutrition in India is a
shame.
True, you know the latest official data on child malnutrition
comes from the National Family Health Survey of 2005-2006,
which is actually before the 11th plan but we don’t have
comparable data after 2005-2006. We do have piecemeal
information coming from the Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS) and some surveys that the rate at which child
malnutrition is going down has accelerated compared to the
previous situation. But these are things that take a long time
to have an impact. I only mention this not to say that it is not
a problem; it is a problem, but I think we should recognise
that when we move to a multi-dimensional standard of
comparison, there is always a target you can pick to shoot at,
and it’s going to take a fair amount of time for the good news
to come, but I think, it can be asserted that the process of
growth that has been unleashed is both tending towards more
rapid growth, and towards greater inclusiveness.

2
Fiscal Federalism:
An Unequal Balance
Yashwant Sinha
MP & Chairman,
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance

L

et me begin by saying that we often make or create
confusion between federalism and decentralisation and I
have seen quite a number of studies where the two terms have
been used interchangeably. To me it appears that federalism
has to be defined separately from decentralisation. Federalism
is the coming together of equal partners who come with a
common goal and share powers and jurisdictions. In the case
of decentralisation, it is one superior entity which is partly
decentralising its powers to the units below and there is a
spirit of condescension.
And N. K. Singh, in particular, will remember representing
Bihar as he does in the Rajya Sabha on the question of special
category states. It’s up to the Government of India to give it
or not. So it is not an equal partnership and therefore this
unequal balance very well describes the scene as it obtains.
Now the second point is that our Constitution, our polity,
is markedly and decidedly non-federal. The first Article of the

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Constitution talks about India that is Bharat being a Union of
States. It is not a federation of states. It is described as the
Union of States and there are a number of articles in the
Constitution which emphasise the overwhelming character,
the unitary character of our polity. Article 3 gives the power
to the Parliament of India to create a new state, to bifurcate
states, to change the boundary of states, to change the name
of a state. Now can you do it in a federation of states? This is
a power which gives pre-eminence to the Centre, to the Union,
through its Parliament.
Then there are other articles of the Constitution which are
clearly unitary in nature: Article 248 with regard to residuary
powers of legislation; Article 249, power of Parliament to
legislate with respect to a matter in the state list in national
interest; Article 257(2), giving directions to a state; Article
271, surcharge on certain duties and taxes not to be shared
with the states. And two former revenue secretaries here will
agree with me that this is a typical tactic which is adopted by
the Government of India when you don’t want to share
something with the states, so you don’t impose a new tax, you
impose a surcharge because that money is wholly yours. Then
Article 280, Finance Commission, I am referring to it because
Finance Commission is appointed by the Government of India.
It consults the states, but the states have no role in the
appointment of the Chairman of the Finance Commission and
the members of the Finance Commission. And finally, Article
356 which as we all know relates to President’s rule.
Now when the Constitution was framed and given to the
people of this country in 1950, all this was very well, because
we had challenges and those challenges had to be met and
therefore we created a Union of States and not a Federation
of States because India had to remain united. Over a period of
time, as these threats and dangers have receded and regional
parties have emerged, states have decided to assert themselves.

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21

The same Constitution is today being interpreted by the states
in a different light and thus there is a pressure on the Central
Government. This makes the Central Government cede more
and more powers and jurisdiction to the state government,
and therefore we are, despite provisions of the Constitution,
progressing towards federalism where the states are
demanding to become equal partners with a union government.
I referred to the Finance Commission. Take the case of the
Planning Commission. The Planning Commission, as we all
know, is not a constitutional body. It has been created by an
executive order of the Union Government and it has continued
all these years through decades without any statutory or
constitutional position and we are all aware of the very
important role that the Planning Commission plays in the
devolution of funds from the Centre to the states. Now I’ll
have a little more to say on this later but as far as devolution is
concerned, I am not talking of other informal arrangements
which the Finance Ministry may make from time to time to
help a state.
Under our system, the devolution of funds to the states
takes place through the Finance Commission award and
through the Planning Commission allocations. And again there
is the National Development Council (NDC) which is a body
of the Planning Commission presided over by the Prime
Minister who is the Chair of the Planning Commission and
presides over the meetings of the NDC. It remains a matter of
opinion about the kind of role that the NDC plays or can play.
But in the Constitution there is a very important body called
the Interstate Council. The Interstate Council is truly a
constitutional body where the centre and the states are
supposed to come together and discuss issues of mutual interest
and then take a decision based on consensus between the Centre
and states and its not merely fiscal, it encompasses a whole
range of issues and that’s the reason why perhaps it has been

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

located in the Ministry of Home Affairs and not with the
Ministry of Finance.
Now as I was telling you, long years of single party rule
both at the Centre as well as the states level led to a situation
where we had almost the dictatorship of the Centre operating
at the state level also. But things started changing from 1967
when the first non-Congress governments were elected in
some of the states and they started asserting themselves and
today the situation is dramatically changed. Now there are
apart from devolution as I said, a number of issues, where the
centre has to necessarily work with the state governments.
We are all aware of the fact that the state governments’
accounts, except for Jammu & Kashmir, are maintained with
the Reserve Bank of India. They are allowed certain overdraft
facilities and it used to be a very live issue some years ago
where the states were always hand to mouth and they would
go to the Reserve Bank of India or come to the Ministry of
Finance to enable them to draw more than what their limit of
overdraft with the RBI was, but now the situation has changed.
The fiscal deficit of the states today is much better than of
the central government and this is thanks largely to the Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management Act that was passed
by Parliament when we were in government, implemented by
this government, and then through the Finance Commission
we persuaded the states to adopt similar legislations. I dare
say that the states have done much better in observing the
tenets of this Act than the Government of India has done. We
have thrown it out of the window, that’s another matter.
But take for instance the case of Agriculture Produce
Marketing Committees (APMCs), which is a very major issue
in our agriculture because if something militates against making
India a common market, it is the APMCs and you cannot
abolish it because it is a state legislation, so you have to work
with the states to moderate it or get it abolished. I remember

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23

we had started a number of discussions in the Interstate
Council sub-committee with the state governments on the
question of abolition of APMCs without much success.
Here I will recall an incident where we were discussing
the value-added tax (VAT) with the state Finance Ministers
and I think the finance secretary in that meeting of the
Government of India dared to suggest that the states should
abolish the tax on the trade of grains, food grains which will
help reduce prices. The Finance Minister of Haryana lost his
temper so badly that one thought that he might even assault
the finance secretary of the Government of India. He had to
be restrained and as you know, the Finance Secretary had only
made a suggestion.
There is another issue – Essential Commodities Act, which
the states implement. Now you change Section 7 of the Essential
Commodities Act as we did but you have to carry conviction
with the state governments because they are the ones who
have to implement the provisions of this Act. I remember a
series of discussions which I had with the state governments
before we were able to amend Section 7 of the Essential
Commodities Act with regard to storage, hoarding, unfair
trade practices etc.
But the most important issue today of course between the
centre and the states is the GST. Earlier it was the VAT and I
can tell you from personal experience that when I started the
process of introduction of the VAT, we had already done it at
the Central level through Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT)
and this had to be now implemented at the state level and the
states sales tax had to be replaced by VAT. We had long
meetings with the state finance ministers, and again claim credit
for the fact that I created a body at that point of time which
has survived the test of time and has today become a very
important organ of centre state co-operation and that is the
Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers, not a

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

constitutional body, but a body which is playing a very
important role today.
And I remember in those discussions, we were only acting
as facilitators, getting the states together to sit down, discuss
what the VAT should be like, what the legislation should be
like, what the rules should be like and it was after very detailed
and long meetings that some kind of a consensus was worked
out between the centre and the states with regard to VAT
which has been now implemented. But I remember for instance
the representatives of the Government of Pondicherry came
to me and they said that this was against the assurance that
Pandit Nehru had given to Pondicherry, you can’t impose VAT.
I said we are not imposing VAT, we are persuading you to
adopt VAT. And VAT is a system of taxation which can unravel
very quickly if all the states do not simultaneously join it.
Fortunately, VAT has happened – VAT has happened in our
country, and now we are moving to the GST.
The GST has many complexities and this is the first attempt
which is being made to change a very important part of our
Constitution. I don’t know ultimately whether some Supreme
Court judge will say this is part of the basic structure of the
Constitution and strike it down. I don’t really know. I am
very seriously making this point because there are, as we are
aware the Union List, the State List and then the Concurrent
List and powers of taxation have been directly given to the
states under the State List.
Now what we are trying to do is to change all that and
have one tax which is the GST, common to the centre and to
the states. It is complex because we are taking away most of
the powers of the state governments and introducing a system
which will be very complex to operate. It can operate only if
we have a first rate information technology platform otherwise
the kind of problems that let’s say NK Singh encountered as
revenue secretary with regard to set-off and refunds with

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25

regard to CENVAT. These are issues which will arise and
can completely debilitate GST if we don’t have a very efficient
system of information searing. But GST is something which
has created fright among the state governments and they are
demanding that we should have some powers still left to
impose taxes they wish without reference to the central
government.
There are issues between states, there are issues among
states and there are issues between the state governments and
the Government of India. The former finance minister who
now sits in the Rashtrapati Bhavan had introduced the GST
Constitutional Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha. The Bill was
referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, which I chair.
We have sent our report to Parliament and through Parliament
to the Government of India, but there have been statements
by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister that there is
no way in which GST can be introduced within the life of this
Lok Sabha and will probably have to have a look at it
subsequently.
But I am on a different point – when I went through the
Constitutional Amendment Bill, I noticed two things, one was
we were amending, going to amend, the Constitution but the
Constitutional Amendment Bill – will be an enabling legislation.
After which the Government of India will pass its law, the
states will pass their laws, and then there will be rules framed
– that is the process of legislation. Now the Constitutional
Amendment Bill is so detailed that things which should be in
the rules have been included, or are sought to be included, in
the Constitution Amendment Bill. It will make life so difficult
because every time you want to change a little thing you will
have to come back to Parliament, go to the state legislatures
to amend this part of the Constitution.
So we have made our recommendations, but the second
point which I’d like to make is that while the states are afraid

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

of this GST and I have many concerns, nobody is airing the
concerns of the Government of India. Nobody, and we have
called the stakeholders, we called the Ministry of Finance,
called the experts, called the others, nobody is bothered about
what is going to happen to the functioning of the Ministry of
Finance, and the making of the budget of the Government of
India. Because this legislation has, and when it comes, will
have a GST Council presided over by the Finance Minister of
India but the deputy chairperson of that body will be a state
Finance Minister. Decision will be taken either unanimously
depending on what ultimately the Government of India decides
or by two-thirds majority. Clearly the states will have a
majority in the GST Council, and I was just telling you about
surcharge. Can the Finance Minister of India impose a
surcharge and get away with it? The GST Council will reject
it, the GST council will say whatever you may do, we must
have our pound of flesh.
How will you prepare the budget, will you take the budget
to the GST Council and get it approved - part B of the budget,
which deals with taxation. I have a feeling that the Government
of India is surrendering far more authority under the GST
than the states are, but in the Government of India, nobody
seems to be worried so be it, but a future finance minister
who takes office after the GST comes into force will encounter
all these problems.
Now I refer to the Planning Commission. Planning
Commission has emerged has what shall I say a new DAITYA.
It is something which the Constitution does not allow. The
Planning Commission instead of engaging itself in perspective
planning, long term planning, is today trying to micro manage
the states, micro manage the states’ finances and states
functions. And I remember I had worked in my civil service
days as principal secretary to a Bihar chief minister who was
one of the brightest politicians I have ever met, Karpoori

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

27

Thakur. Thakur came to the Planning Commission for a
meeting with the deputy chairperson one day or he probably
made this point in the meeting of NDC. He said where are
these wise people coming from; these wise people are coming
from the states. So when my officer comes and sits in the
Yojana Bhawan, he acquires such knowledge and wisdom that
he will sit in judgement over the officers who are working at
the state level.
And the Government of India, its line ministries which have
vested interests have created over period of time a plethora of
schemes, centrally sponsored, which are supposed to be
implemented by the state governments, and these schemes have
varying funding patterns, some 80/20, some 75/25, some 60/
40, 30/70, there is no prescribed rule about what the funding
pattern of a certain scheme of the Government of India will
be. There is no standard rule like the Americans have when
they deal with the diplomats, they have a standard procedure,
we don’t. So what is happening, even after the present finance
minister persuaded the Planning Commission and the line
ministries to reduce the number of schemes, the total number
of schemes which are being run by the Government of India
and implemented by the states is 149 or so. You go to any
district of this country and ask the District Magistrate, the
Deputy Development Commissioner, the Block Development
Officer, the Panchayat, the Zila Parishad, about the number
of schemes are they implementing. Nobody will be able to
count all these schemes because they have lost count.
This is one of the worst systems that we have perpetrated
in our polity – Government of India’s schemes. And therefore
in the Parliamentary Finance Committee we have suggested
that the total number of schemes run by the Government of
India should be reduced to something like 10 or 12.
You can’t have every scheme as a flagship scheme. Sheep
rearing is a flagship scheme of the Government of India – and

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

there is one in my constituency where sheep have long vanished.
There are only people, persons, who are running the sheep
farm. I mean it’s ridiculous in the extreme, and every time
nobody is prepared to accept zero budgeting. There is no review
in the Planning Commission. Every year we go on sanctioning
funds one after the other, and let me also tell you that every
year there is a slanging match between the Planning
Commission and the Finance Ministry with regards to the gross
budgetary support.
When N.K. Singh and Montek Singh Ahluwalia were in
the Finance Ministry, they used to fight alongside me with the
Planning Commission to say how GBS should be restricted.
When they went to the Planning Commission, they became
warriors of the Planning Commission. About how much GBS
should be made available and every time it goes to the Prime
Minister for arbitration and then he passes the final word.
Then once the GBS is decided, then the sectoral allocations
are made by the Deputy Chairperson of the Planning
Commission, not by the Finance Minister.
So what is the plan allocation for agriculture or rural
development or anything which is under plan will be
determined by the Planning Commission, and the Deputy
Chairperson of Planning Commission and no one defends the
allocation of the Planning Commission in the Parliament. This
is one of the major lacunas in our system. Once when I told a
Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission, when I was
Finance Minister, in front of the Prime Minister, that I will
have to stand up and defend these allocations with which I
have nothing to do, and he was not very happy with the remark.
So the Planning Commission needs to be restricted, in fact
at a seminar in the Stanford University where I had gone,
thanks to N.K. Singh, I had made a presentation where I had
said that the Planning Commission should become a
Perspective Planning and Implementation Commission and they

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

29

should stop interfering with the state governments in their
day to day functioning and whatever be the allocations, you
make 100 per cent allocation for these 10-12 flagship schemes
and for the rest just transfer the funds to the state governments
and let them decide what they want to do. This is the formula
that we had followed when we had in our time started the
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana – 100 per cent funding,
100 per cent monitoring, otherwise you have no monitoring. I
understand that now we have an Independent Evaluation
Office, and I wish the head luck because it’s a difficult thing
that he has taken upon himself. So if there is one body which
is the biggest obstacle in the path to federalism in our system,
I’ll put my finger at the Planning Commission of India.
Now the Government of India is also the banker of last
resort. This is the point I was alluding to earlier, that whenever
despite all the chant of federalism, that the states, whatever
their political complexion may be. The point remains that they
come to the Government of India whenever they are in fiscal
difficulties and the Government of India has to find the
wherewithal to be able to help them. There are instances
galore, of how often we have gone out of our way to help
state governments and the most, the greatest satisfaction that
I derived in my tenure as Finance Minister was not a letter for
appreciation from a BJP ruled state Chief Minister but from
Kerala which was being ruled by the CPM. The then Chief
Minister E. K. Nayanar wrote a beautiful letter to me
appreciating the fact that I had been always ready to help the
Kerala government.
Finally I’ll end by saying that whatever union federalism,
decentralisation, now to the fourth level of our Panchayats
that is taking place, is fine. But what we need in future in our
polity, what we need truly is co-operative federalism. This
co-operative federalism and one example of this is the

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

Empowered Group of State Finance Ministers, where we have
co-opted them, where they have started playing a very important
role and I think in various other areas where we have to deal
closely with the state governments. It will be a useful thing if
we created similar bodies, for instance, why not have a Standing
Committee of State Home Ministers to discuss various issues
relating not only to law and order but also to the overall security
scenario of this country.
We have meetings called by the Central ministers but there
is no appointed body to be able to fully involve itself with its
own secretariat to be able to talk to Government of India on
equal terms. So unity of purpose at the state level, a more
liberal approach by the Government of India and co-operative
federalism, to my mind is the way forward and I hope we’ll
have the political wisdom to create that kind of a polity in our
country in the very nearest future.

3
The Transformatory
Potential of Aadhar
Providing Empowerment,
Choice and Convenience
Nandan Nilekani
Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India

I

will speak today about what the Aadhar project is about,
what it is going to do and why do we think it is important
for empowerment, choice and convenience for the common
man.
We have seen dramatic changes in many areas of
technology. If you remember in India in 1990s it took us two
years to get a landline phone. And today we have mobile phones
everywhere. In 1995, we had about 60 million landlines and
no mobile phones, but today we have 900 million mobile
phones. We have seen how easy and fast communication has
become for everyone.
Similarly news has become real time – now everybody gets
news on Twitter, Facebook, etc. We have seen the impact of
social media revolution – whether it is the case of anticorruption movement or the terrible episode of gang rape in

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Delhi. It has been possible due to the rapid communication of
the electronic social media.
Similarly let us look at the banking sector. We have migrated
from branch-based banking to online real time banking. Now
you can go to any bank, withdraw your money and you can
use the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), mobile banking,
etc.
We also have electronic voting machines today and railway
reservation based on a computerised system. Everywhere we
have seen and felt the impact of technology. This is the
background to what we are doing in the Aadhar programme.
There are two mandates in the Adhaar programme: one is
to provide a unique number to every resident of India by a
one-time enrollment and allotment of a unique number; the
second is to provide online, cost effective authentication of
your identity anywhere in the country. The person providing
the service needs to verify that you are the person you claim
to be on the basis of certain documents. It will provide an
online authentication capability across the country. Therefore,
Aadhar provides a unique and permanent number and the
verification of a person’s identity across the country.
Aadhar would generate a 12-digit random number. For this
we seek very simple information, such as the name, address,
date of birth, sex. If one wishes, e-mail ID and mobile number
could be recorded. Further, we record biometrics for each
individual comprising of 10 finger prints and of the iris of
both the eyes. The reason that we do this is for establishing
uniqueness. Everyone’s biometrics across these 12 attributes
are unique and therefore it ensures that a person does not get
more than one number.
We use a process called de-duplication. When somebody
enrols in our system with the biometric data the system
compares that against the biometrics in the database of all the
people to check whether it is duplicate or not. If it is a duplicate

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33

then we reject it. This is a fairly massive exercise if you have a
database of 300 million people and if one million new people
enrol on a day then each of those one million has to be
compared against all 300 million in the database.
Though it appears complex, but over the last 10 years there
have been dramatic improvements in the computing power,
thanks to Moore’s law and the use of large internet
applications. Today we can do millions of matches every
second. Aadhar uses massive and modern computational
technology.
Aadhar provides the facility of on-line authentication. By
feeding any unique identification number and biometrics
anywhere in the country the system through its central server
would confirm instantaneously whether the person is indeed
the person he/she claims to be. This kind of online ID system
has not been attempted anywhere else in the world.
So where are we today? This project began in July 2009
and we launched the Aadhar enrollment in September, 2010.
Within 14 months of the project start, we built the technology
platform and rolled it out. So far 250 million Aadhar numbers
have been issued. As of now around 300 million have been
enrolled in the system across the country and the target is 400
million by sometime in 2013 and about 600 million by
sometime in 2014. By 2014, one out of two Indians will have
an Aadhar number and over time, everyone will get an Aadhar
number.
On October 20, 2012 we marked the 2nd anniversary of
Aadhar in Dudu, Rajasthan. This was to launch services as
well as give the 21st crore Aadhar number to a resident of
Rajasthan. Now 2-3 months later, we have already hit 28 crore
and 280 million Aadhars have been generated.
We also have an online portal. You can go to our website
www.uid.gov.in which will give you the data as of this morning.
You can also see the distribution by state. In a state, you can

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

go down and look at distribution by district. Basically you are
choosing what is called big anonymised data to provide real
time analytic source where we have all enrollments.
If you see the next couple of slides you will see the kind of
enrollment centres in Andhra Pradesh, in Maharashtra and in
Jharkhand. Today’s Dainik Bhaskar carries news that there
are long queues for enrollment in Jaipur. The scheme is very
popular as a large number of people don’t have any proof of
ID. In many states a large per centage of births are not
registered and people do not have birth certificates/school
certificates. For such people, procuring an identity is very
empowering. So there is a huge demand for this ID across the
country.
The in-built authentication called an open platform or a
common platform provides the facility to verify identities online
which can be used for any government programme. Whether
it’s a financial transaction or a health transaction whether it’s
a food or kerosene transaction, one can conduct authentication
online using the system. That ensures that only the genuine
persons avail of that benefit.
Now the other important thing we offer is electronic KYC.
KYC stands for “Know Your Customer.” For example, the
Reserve Bank of India has approved Aadhar in compliance of
KYC norms for opening bank accounts. Data, such as, the
address and identity details is sent from our computer to the
computer system of the bank.
This KYC facility is today also used for mobile connections,
insurance policies, stock market transactions, LPG
connections, in train travel and many government services,
etc. Aadhar is being used by more and more agencies for proof
of identity and address. This ability to provide service to
everyone in one go is very important strategically and can create
quick adoption of many new capabilities. The KYC facility of

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

35

Aadhar, therefore, promotes inclusion and reduces
transactional costs.
Further, Aadhar provides the facility to make direct
monetary benefit transfer into the bank account of
beneficiaries. For instance, once the unique Aadhar number
is linked to the bank account, pensions can be directly credited
into the beneficiaries’ account by giving this number. The ability
of Aadhar as payment address is something that we use in the
direct cash (direct benefit) transfer that the government has
just rolled out.
So in fact if you look at the direct benefit transfer, Aadhar
has five different roles and it is important to spend some time
on understanding these.
The first role of Aadhar is on account of its unique number
that removes ghosts and duplicates from the database which
is a huge source of leakages. Suppose there is a list of
beneficiaries and often such lists have been found with
duplicates or people who don’t exist. So what we are doing
now is that the government is working on many schemes and
feeding the Aadhar number into that scheme. For example, in
Rajasthan in three districts – Ajmer, Alwar and Udaipur where
about 14 out of 34 schemes the Aadhar number has been fed
in all the beneficiary lists and is being used to scrub the
database of duplicates and that itself provides savings and
avoids fraud and wastage of money.
The second role is that of using the number as an address
when the money is sent to the number. So the money is not
sent to the bank account. Somewhere the Aadhar payment
bridges the number which becomes the bank account. This
ensures that there is no fraud because first you make sure that
it is a real person then you send the money to the number of
real person.
The third role is that Aadhar is acceptable as KYC which
means that once you have an Aadhar number, it is much easier

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

to open a bank account. Anyone who needs a bank account
for the purpose of cash transfer, can use this KYC.
The fourth important role is that it addresses the imperative
need of the beneficiary to withdraw money conveniently from
his bank account. For that we have introduced a micro ATM
which is essentially a mobile phone enabled device which can
be given to any business correspondent (BC) in any part of
country and that is connected to the mobile network. The
customer of any bank can go to any BC and withdraw money.
And that is really the heart of the benefit transfer system
because one part of the benefit transfer system is putting the
money into the account, the other part is taking the money
out of the account. And because these BCs are online, they
are all on the same network.
This is a very important aspect of empowerment through
Aadhar because one of the problems with our public delivery
systems is that they don’t give choices to the customers or to
the beneficiaries to go somewhere else if they get bad services
from their suppliers. For example, if you look at the Public
Distribution System (PDS) if there are 2000 beneficiaries of
PDS in a particular locality, there will be four PDS shops and
each PDS shop is assigned to 500 people or 500 families which
means those 500 families can only go to that PDS shop. If the
shop is closed or the shop does not have the required material,
one cannot do anything, he cannot go anywhere else. Once
you create this interoperability or portability then the customer
can go to any BC to withdraw his money. So if one particular
BC is giving bad service, he will just lose his customer and
people will go to somebody else.
The way it works is that if I am a customer, and I get M1000
as pension, the same goes electronically into my bank account
and the bank will send a text message to my mobile phone
saying that pension has been credited. And then I walk to a
neighbourhood BC who could be an Aanganwadi worker, a

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

37

Panchayat office, or a gocery shop, it doesn’t really matter.
On putting my finger on the system, it confirms that I am the
same person. Then if I want to withdraw M300 rupees from
my bank account, BC will give M300 to me and on the computer
system my account will get debited M300 and the BC’s account
will get credited M300 to replace the money which he gave. It
is an online reconciliation system. Also I can go to BC of
another bank and withdraw my money which means that every
BC on the network is interoperable. So if we have 10000 BCs,
they are interoperable, if you have 1 million BCs, even then
there is interoperability. The same principle may apply for the
PDS system. So the fact that you create what is called an
entitlement portability, it goes a long way to reduce corruption
because now the beneficiary has choice.
And finally the fifth benefit of this system is that you have
end-to-end traceability of a transaction. Right from the point
money is put into an account with Aadhar number to the point
that the person withdraws the money with his Aadhar number,
there is traceability at every level, and that too, in real time.
Fundamentally you can create a transparent architecture which
allows you to do this cash transfer. This can be used for many
other applications.
The system can be viewed as a pipe where at one end the
government puts money into an Aadhar number and at the
other end the beneficiary associated with the Aadhar number
withdraws it from his bank account. Everything else is a black
box.
So today if we have something like 250000 bank branches
and post offices and may be 100000 ATM’s and about 500000
point of sale (POS) machines, tomorrow once we have these
micro ATMs and we have recommended that there should be
one million of them, then there would be so many more
locations for people to go and withdraw money and ultimately
all this will be possible through the mobile phone. So once

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

people start using a mobile phone you will witness digitisation
of the payment system over the next few years which will
make it convenient for people to access, transfer, withdraw
and pay money.
We are making payments under the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) through a micro ATM
in Jharkhand where the beneficiary puts his thumb on a small
machine that is mobile phone based, which authenticates his
ID and he gets paid.
The next slide shows a PDS shop in East Godawari, Andhra
Pradesh, where we are doing a project using Aadhar for
authentication. You can see a lady putting her finger on the
machine, authentication process and then receiving quota of
rice for the day or for that month.
The next slide is of Tripura where old age pension is being
similarly withdrawn conveniently.
Fundamentally I think Aadhar solves a number of problems.
First, for many people it is a first ID which is on the cloud and
is a national ID which means, one can enrol in Bihar and it
will work in Thiruvananthapuram. The fact that it gives
national mobility is very important.
Because of its acceptance as far as KYC is concerned, it
becomes an instant gateway to services. Opening bank
accounts, getting mobile connections, getting insurance
policies, getting state government benefits, applying for a
passport, etc. reduces costs and barriers for people.
Then you also make sure that the money or whatever the
benefit goes to the intended person because the person
withdraws the money with authentication. For example, in
the recently launched programme Annashree in Delhi which
gives a supplement of M600 for food to people on the BPL list,
the money goes to the eldest lady of the house and only she
can withdraw the money. So that’s also empowering because

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

39

you can make sure that it goes only to, say, the woman of the
house.
And finally it gives entitlement portability. Once you put it
on this cloud, then you can go to any BC to withdraw your
money, go to any PDS shop to withdraw food and so on.
Portability is the heart of empowerment because once you
give portability, once the beneficiary can go anywhere to
withdraw, then the bargaining power shifts from the supplier
to the beneficiary. There are no more monopolies and
automatically you get much better services that reduce retail
corruption at the point of service. But the cash transfer is just
one of many applications that will come on this platform in
the coming future. And fundamentally it is a tool of massive
social inclusion, it is a tool for making government expenditure
more efficient and more effective and it is a platform on which
a wide variety of services can be provided to make life better
for everybody.

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

4
Emerging Powers of Global
Economic Governance
Rakesh Mohan
Former Executive Director, IMF

I

will talk about how the landscape of the global economy
might change over the next 10 to 20 years as well as the
attendant changes in the global economic governance. Let me
start by analysing why we are talking about global economic
governance today.
First, apical changes took place at the turn of the 18th
Century with the onset of the Industrial Revolution.
Interestingly, prior to 1800, the ratio of per capita income
between the rich and poor countries was not more than 4:1.
By 1950, the ratio was more like 20:1 and the world got
divided into the rich and the poor. The intervening period
saw colonialism and imperialism as also the ascendancy of
Europe between World War I and World War II. Power then
shifted from Europe or the UK, in particular, to the US. Hence,
after World War II, very clearly, economic power was
distinctly with the US and was accompanied by the progressive
end to colonialism. Today, we are beginning to see the shift of
economic power from Europe and North America to Asia
and, therefore, this discussion on global economic governance.

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The first phase of growth in Asia came from Japan, which
grew at a rate that was never seen before. Subsequently, Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong often called the Tigers’
Economies, in the 1970s to 1990s started growing even faster
than Japan grew in its peak times. Gradually, their incomes
started converging to the European and North American levels
but being small countries their economic weight was also small.
As a result, the world really did not notice and there was no
need for any change in global economic governance.
It was in the 1990s and in the 2000s that both China and
India started growing at similar high growth rates and thus
some convergence was observed. China had grown much faster
than India. There were other emerging markets, such as Brazil,
Indonesia etc. that were becoming significant – raising demands
for better representation and global economic governance
whether by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the
World Bank (WB) or by other international organisations.
The difference in per capita income levels still remains and
will continue to remain in the coming years. It is only because
the populations of China and India are four to five times than
that of the US and that even with lower per capita income
they can start equalling the weight of the US.
A remarkable occurrence of the recent times is what I call
the ‘North Atlantic Financial Crisis’. It is only the arrogance
of Europe and the US that it is called global economic crisis/
global financial crisis. Such a crisis was seen in Asia in 1990,
which affected the whole world in terms of economic and
financial crisis. In addition, in the recent financial crisis, to
my knowledge, not a single financial institution in any one
nation of Latin America or Asia has needed to be bailed out
during the last five years. Therefore, ‘North Atlantic Financial
Crisis’ is a more apt description. The North Atlantic Financial
Crisis again brought into focus the question of prevailing global
economic model and the superiority of North Atlantic

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

43

economies. There is much more debate at present and a
balanced but mixed view on the Asian economies and some of
the Asian models, etc. Hence, there is a great demand for
global economic governance.
Prior to World War I, there were free capital flows and
free labour movements and in that sense the world was perhaps
even more globalised then that too without access to the
internet and the kind of communication we have today. The
world also suffered in the last 20 years with a huge number of
banking crises but as in the global economic governance there
were no international organisations, with countries adhering
to the gold standard, silver standard, fixed exchange rates and
so on. The period between World War I and World War II
saw the Great Depression, policies of hyperinflation in
Germany as gold standard broke down, fiscal policy gained
ascendancy and a lot of protection including those related to
borders, capital movements, etc. resulting in restricted trade
movements and so on.
Finally, after the World War II, a huge attempt to restore
or fix the whole system was undertaken and that’s how Bretton
Woods Conference took place – the GATT came into being
along with the WB, the IMF. Even though Indian and China
were present at the Bretton Woods but the discussion was
basically between the US and the European powers.
The paradigm started changing in the 1960s to 1990s with
the ascendance of some Asian economies, Japan and then
China and then India. In the post-World War II major growth
took place in Europe and Japan. The world did get divided
between the socialist economies – the Soviet Union, Eastern
Europe, China, on the one hand and the other remaining
countries, on the other. In fact, none of those economies were
actually members of the so called world organisations, so these
were not world organisations, until recently.

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Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

What did happen, during the late 1950s to 1970s was the
newly independent nations of Asia and Africa joining these
world organisations. But per capita income continued to be
low in most of these countries. Many of the countries in Latin
America and Asia went through number of crises in the 1980’s
and 1990s and a huge number of reforms were undertaken by
these countries and Latin America, in particular, and Asia
specifically. Then they started growing fast as most countries
grew with a rapid pace in the 2000s.
The high growth and weight of India, China, Brazil, and
Russia finally started becoming significant in the 2000s
although the income level still remained low. Their global trade
also increased significantly and, therefore, they were
demanding greater role in global governance. This growth of
emerging markets can be observed in terms of industry, export
of goods in services, metal consumption and mobile/cellular
subscriptions in the last 15 to 17 years.
Until 1990s there was complete dominance of North
America and Europe in all forms of global economic
governance. The WB President as all we know, so far, is
basically nominated by the US President and has always been
an American and the IMF Managing Director has always been
an European, mostly French. The last Managing Director came
from France but the first Deputy Manager is always an
American. The WTO is the first international organisation
that started showing signs of change. The Secretary Generals
of WTO were all Europeans till 1999 – then Mike Moore
from New Zealand, Panitchpakdi from Thailand, then again
European, Pascal Lamy and currently, the new Director
General is Brazilian.
Regardless of these changes, the structure of the WB and
IMF remains dominated by the North America and Europe as
the economic weight of these regions remained dominant
between 65 to 80 per cent through the period. It is only (at

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

45

present) that the growth in China, India, etc. is being felt
palpably and such countries are called Emerging Developing
Market Economies.
It is interesting to see the current projections. By 2030, the
Chinese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is almost certain
(unless there is an unforeseen economic accident) to be much
larger than the US and there is a reasonable chance that by
2050 or 2060 India’s GDP will also become larger than the
US. In terms of the Articles of Agreement, certainly of the
IMF and may be of the WB also, the headquarters of these
organisations are supposed to be wherever the largest
shareholder is. If the projections come true, the building next
door will have to move to Hong Kong, Macau or Beijing. If
the rate of change predicted comes around, it will be quite
dramatic in the next 20 years and very different from the last
20 to 60 years and the on-going changes do suggest that there
is a change taking place in global governance.
Until the late 1990s it was the G-7 countries (Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US), which got
together and discussed global economic governance issues.
After the Asian crises, the G-20 was founded, which is more
representative and comprises more than 80 per cent of global
GDP.
In some sense, G-7 has faded in its importance, and there
is the beginning of change that we can expect in next 20 years.
If you take the European crisis, money for the programmes
that have assisted Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Iceland,
etc. has come from European organisations – the European
Banks, the European Commission (EC) and so on. There has
been a joint responsibility between European Central Bank
(ECB), the EC and IMF in running these programmes. To
address similar crises in future in other parts of the world,
there is now what we call a regional financial arrangement,
which has called the Chanmay Initiative for the Asian

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countries. This does not include South Asia. Asian countries
have got together and have put in arrangements, so that if one
country needs assistance then there is Chanmay, which is quite
large (about USD400bn).
Another initiative in process is in the BRICS countries i. e.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. They are
discussing a BRICS Bank, which may be conducting similar
activities that the WB does. They are also discussing a currency
reserve arrangement to the tune of USD100-200bn among
themselves. Just about two to three weeks back, India and
Japan announced a mutual arrangement for USD50mn . Such
big changes are already taking place.
Though it is difficult to predict what is going to happen in
the next 5 to 20 years and whether the governance of the
extant global institutions will change with more
representations, according to economic weight or they will
remain Europe and the US dominated but in the latter
eventuality, I think other institutions will gain further speed.

5
Economic Governance in India:
Quality of Political
Leadership Important
Rajiv Lall
Executive Chairman, IDFC Ltd.

T

here is much noise about governance, or rather the lack
of it. There is also much lamentation about poor economic
governance amongst the business community. It is important
to step back and reflect on what we mean by the concept of
governance itself and then try to evaluate where we as Indians
stand.
We cannot really talk about economic governance in
isolation. Good economic governance depends on political
governance. The concept of economic and political governance
cannot be disassociated from one another. I was struck when
I re-read a very influential essay that was written in 1989 by
Francis Fukuyama who, following the fall of the Berlin wall,
argued that while there might be many competing forms of
social and political organisation, none could claim to be
superior or more effective or more durable then the idea of a
liberal democracy. And he went further to make the case that
for the idea of liberal democracy to remain sustainable and

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alive, ideally it works better and is bolstered by free markets.
In essence he made the case that the combination of liberal
democracy and free markets had proved to be the most
successful and durable form of social, political and economic
organisation.
But a lot has happened since then. Most notably the world
has seen two major financial crises: the 1997 Asian financial
crisis and then the so called global financial crisis of 2008.
Both of these crises have reignited the debate about how well
liberal democracy and free markets work together, about the
role of markets, about their efficacy, and about their
contribution to growing inequality. In parallel, we have seen
the spectacular economic success of an alternative model: that
of state capitalism represented by the Chinese experience.
Many are wondering if Francis Fukuyama was premature in
announcing the “End of History”.
Turning to India, let us start with the question: are we a
successful democracy? If you look at how India has delivered
versus the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) compared
to China, we are way behind. Whether it is life expectancy,
whether it is poverty reduction, health, nutrition etc. the
empirical fact is that despite being a representative democracy
we seem to have failed to deliver on the basics for our citizens.
Viewed through this lens, some would argue that India cannot
be regarded as a successful democracy. If a country like China,
without a free political system, can deliver substantially greater
economic prosperity than India to its citizens, has democracy
served India well?
This line of reasoning may be logical but it is troublesome.
Our notion of what is good for our society surely must be
firmly anchored in a certain moral and philosophical value
system, one in which we as Indians attach value to freedom of
choice. In fact, the importance of being able to choose who
governs us cannot be measured. The success or failure of

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49

governance in India cannot, should not, must not be gauged
only in terms of our economic performance. Such an evaluation
must also take into account what else we have achieved since
independence. It is to such an evaluation that I now turn.
What is the record of political governance in postindependence India? While it is absolutely true that in terms
of the MDGs our performance has been disappointing to say
the least, the evidence is strong that we have succeeded in
building a robust democracy. Consider the following. At the
time that we became a republic, the probability that most
ascribed to India surviving as a democracy was close to zero.
Recent empirical research by political scientists who have
reviewed data on emerging democracies shows that income
per capita is by far the most important predictor of a successful
democracy. The wealthier the country at the time of
“democratisation”, the likelier it is to survive as a democracy.
India is quite the exception. We had the lowest per capita
income of any country as we embarked on our democratic
journey. And we continue to be a vibrant democracy despite
the fact that our per capita income is lower than almost any
other functioning democracy in the world today.
I think it is incontestable that Indian democracy has, over
the past 60 odd years, become more representative. Take the
very simple indicator of the cast composition of our country.
Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward castes
comprise some 65-70 per cent of the population. And if you
look at their participation in levels of decisions making, and
their participation in politics generally, their influence today,
compared the time before we got universal suffrage has grown
dramatically.
The experience of South India in particular is very
interesting in this regard. This is a part of the country that
saw a social revolution going back to the 1920’s and 30’s and
where the 1950’s and 60’s saw very effective Dalit participation

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in politics. That this led to the end of the hitherto
disproportionate influence and dominance of the Brahman elite
is well established. Arguably, the Mandal movement
represents the unleashing of the same dynamic some 40-50
years later in North India. What we saw happen in South India
going back to 1950’s we are seeing unfold in Northern India
starting with the Mandal movement of the 1980’s. It is
incontestable that lower caste communities have greater voice
in the governance of our country today than ever before. For
a society that has been burdened by the insufferable rigidities
of an intensely hierarchical caste system, this is no mean
achievement.
From the sociological perspective, social equality and dignity
are equally if not more important than economic equality.
Whereas we may not have been as successful in delivering
economic equality to all those who have been disadvantaged
historically, we have made significant progress – even though
we still have further to go – in terms of delivering greater
respect and recognition for the socially oppressed.
Thus, our political system may appear dysfunctional and
corroded by corruption, but it has actually delivered quite
robustly on political governance in the sense that it has greatly
enhanced the representation of, participation by, and dignity
for, disadvantaged segments of our society.1
Now let me come to the question of economic governance.
Even as we started our post-Independence political journey
whole heartedly embracing liberal democracy, we did not start
with the same enthusiasm for markets. Even though our
political governance, for all its flaws, has proved to be robust,
we have fared less well with economic governance. On the
economic front we started with the Nehruvian state-led so
called “mixed economy” model. This model has over the past
1

See Ashutosh Varshney’s “Battles Half Won”, 2013 for more on this
line of reasoning.

Better Governance for Inclusive Growth

51

couple of decades been lurching somewhat reluctantly towards
a more market based economy.
The watershed for this transition was the macro-economic
crisis of 1991 with became the trigger for deregulation and
economic reforms under the Narasimha Rao-led government.
From independence to that time we were, in the economic
sphere, used to managing and administering a system that relied
very much on state intervention of various kinds. And the entire
bureaucratic machinery of the state was trained and
conditioned to that way of functioning. The same goes for our
judicial and dispute resolution machinery. Since we started
the economic reform process in 1991, I think that we have
not been very successful in changing the paradigm of state
engagement with the private sector from how it was in the
era of “command and control” to an era of deregulated markets.
And this I believe is the challenge of economic governance
that we face today. Ironically, this challenge of economic
governance has been made tougher by the very success of our
democracy in political terms. Managing the interplay between
democratic politics and entrepreneur-centric private enterprise
in a context where institutions such as the judiciary and
bureaucracy have not kept pace with the needs of the transition
to a market economy is the central challenge of economic
governance that we face.
Broadly speaking there are three classes of issues that we
face with economic governance. First, is a set of problems
that relate to our somewhat reluctant transition to a market
economy. Although we started our post-Independence political
journey whole heartedly embracing liberal democracy, we did
not start our economic journey with the same enthusiasm for
markets. On the economic front we started with the so called
“mixed economy” model. During the first 45 years after
independence we created a most elaborate system for
managing and administering the economy, one that relied very

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much on state intervention. Over the years, our bureaucracy
and judiciary became conditioned to that way of functioning.
As a result, since we started the economic reform process in
1991, we have not been very successful in changing the
paradigm of state engagement with the private sector from
how it was in the era of “command and control” to what it
should be in era of deregulated markets.
Twenty years after “liberalisation” the extent of state
participation in the economy remains stubbornly large. For
example, the share of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in
the combined sales revenues of all listed companies actually
rose from 41 in 2003 to 43 per cent in 2013. In infrastructure,
the entire electricity supply chain, with the exception of
generation, remains dominated by government companies. Fuel
supply is the largely the monopoly of Coal India. Transmission
is the monopoly of the Power Grid Corporation. And last mile
distribution, except in a few cities, is controlled by State
Electricity Boards (SEBs), which remain notoriously
dysfunctional.
In agriculture, the pricing of sugar, the procurement and
exports of food grains, the marketing of agricultural
commodities, are all still subject to pervasive state controls.
The state continues to play an invasive role in land markets
and PSU institutions still account for more than three-quarters
of the financial sector’s assets. This widespread government
participation in economic activity has been used to pursue the
state’s political agenda in a manner that has distorted markets
and undermined economic governance. Directed lending to
agriculture from PSU banks, free electricity through SEBs,
subsidised petroleum products through the oil distribution
companies are but some examples.
Being in a half-way house where the state is reluctant to
give up economic space and the private sector is eager and
anxious for more space has made effective business regulation

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53

difficult. An effective regulator must be independent and
autonomous. But in an economy where the state itself competes
with the private sector how does one ensure that the regulator
is independent? Our country is replete with examples of
sectors where we have an inherent conflict with the
government competing with the private sector while also
playing regulator. With a few notable exceptions, regulators
such as those of the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions
are typically retired civil servants that act largely to protect
the political interests of the governments that appoint them.
Special interest groups wield enormous power in most
democracies. In India, given the pervasive involvement of
government in all manner of economic activity and business
decision making, corporate lobbying has become a particularly
important part of Indian business culture. The construction
and infrastructure investment booms triggered huge
competition for raw materials, land and government contracts
and concessions. With stakes for private business having risen
to unprecedented levels, lobbying has degenerated into “crony
capitalism” over recent years.
A third set of issues, hardly unique to Indian democracy,
are to do with protecting the interests of future generations
who do not vote vis-a-vis those of present day voters. It is not
easy for democracies to balance inter-generational conflict. It
is politically more convenient to indulge present day voters at
the cost of future generations. It is expedient to borrow now
and pay later. This is what drives our runaway subsidy bill
and stubbornly high fiscal deficit. It also explains our eagerness
to please farmers with free electricity, free water and cheap
fertiliser even though the environmental consequences of these
policies for our water table and soil quality are potentially
devastating for future generations.
What is to be done? That economic decision making in our
country is heavily politicised may not be good from an

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economist’s perspective of delivering optimum economic
outcomes. But this is in a sense the price we pay for democracy,
the value of which cannot be measured in economic terms.
The bottom line is that we cannot improve our economic
governance by wishing away its underlying political drivers.
Our electoral system has in fact been very successful in
delivering greater representation and voice to historically
disadvantaged members of society. We must build the rest of
the essential institutional bulwark of our democracy and our
economy. Here are few thoughts on what else we could do.
First, because we are truly exceptional case of a democracy
that is hugely representative at a very low GDP per capita, we
must experiment with new institutional structures and
platforms that facilitate and support policy making from
outside the traditional and very partisan parliamentary
legislative process. We should try to build more “national
institutions” like Election Commission, the Office of the
Comptroller and Auditor General, the Finance Commission
and the Reserve Bank – institutions that can be trusted by all
parties with issues of national interest.
For example, the Planning Commission could be turned
into a widely respected and non-partisan platform on economic
policy, rather than serving mostly as an allocator of central
government funds. The goal would be to turn the Commission
into a platform that engages all stakeholders in dialogue on
vital policy issues outside of the Parliament. This could be
perhaps be achieved by having members of the Commission
appointed through an apolitical process and have its
recommendations deliberated through a collegium of chief
ministers.
Another possibility is to build autonomous regulatory
authorities that have the legal powers to make policy decisions
on such issues as railway tariffs, user charges for essential
services such as water, and the pricing of petroleum products.

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55

Indeed there is already a proposal to create a new Railway
Regulatory Authority. I do not know if these ideas will work.
I am merely suggesting that we must be creative about building
and strengthening institutional platforms that permit
adjudication of difficult policy questions of national
importance in a non-partisan manner.
Second, we must build on initiatives to make governments
in general, and the bureaucracy in particular, at all levels
(centre, state and below) accountable for service delivery. Here
is where greater transparency and community participation
could be most effective. Policy cannot be formulated through
mass participation – there are limits to direct democracy. But
service delivery can certainly be improved through these
means.
Third, a huge effort is required to change the nature of
engagement between the state and the private sector. To
improve the quality of our economic management, our
bureaucracy particularly, but also our judiciary and other
institutions must evolve to higher levels of sophistication,
competence and autonomy such that they facilitate, regulate
and adjudicate economic activity, rather than supervise it or
participate in it. This will need a lot of capacity building and
training at various levels of the bureaucracy. It will also need
improved coordination horizontally and vertically across
different layers of government. Dispute resolution is an area
that needs focussed and urgent attention. Specialist courts with
suitably trained officials and an appeals process that does not
have to go through the normal winding path of the mainstream
judiciary are initiatives to think about.
Finally, the quality of political leadership is important. At a
time in our evolution when the supporting institutional
structures have still some way to go before they attain the
requisite levels of competence and sophistication, there is a
huge premium on leadership. Our country is too complex to

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rely on just an individual now. We must attract a new
generation of leaders into politics – leaders who are able to
navigate the rough and tumble of electoral politics, but have
also the perspective to be able to rise above its parochial and
partisan compulsions.

6
Consumer Financial Services
Sothi Rachagan
Vice Chancellor, Perdana University, Malaysia

M

y lecture is entitled ‘Consumer Financial Services’ and
my hope in delivering it is that CUTS will be convinced
to include financial services as a significant part of their future
work.
We are in the midst of yet another financial services scandal.
The manipulation of the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate
(Libor) has adversely impacted consumers in every country.
Tracy McDermott, who led the Investigation Team, stated
that “what Barclays did was extremely serious. But Barclays
were not involved in this on their own. And while they were
certainly not the best of the bunch, there are other firms at a
similar level of seriousness”. The Guardian pointed out that
the scandal “goes to the culture and the structure of banks:
the excessive compensation, the shoddy treatment of
customers, the deceitful manipulation, a key interest rate and
today, news of yet another…mis-selling scandal” (Pettifor,
2012).
The UK leaders, who regulate the banks which determine
the Libor, have expressed their shock. Vince Cable, the UK

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Business Secretary said, “The industry is a massive cesspit”
and Ken Clarke, UK Justice Secretary said that “Financial
crime is easier to get away with in this country than practically
any other sort of crime” (Pettifor, 2012).
In retrospect, it appears incredibly naïve that bankers were
allowed to by themselves determine the rate that they will
charge their customers and not foresee that they would fix
the rate to their advantage. Fines have been imposed, but let
us make no mistake; the fines will be passed on to consumers.
The regulators who so grossly failed will not be called on to
account for their failure. Even more devastating is that the
root cause of the problem will remain unaddressed. Banks
will be permitted to continue fixing the rate. There has been
regulatory capture in financial services regulation. Unless this
is addressed, the shock and dismay that has been caused by
the Libor scandal will not result in any change for the better.
We need to impose on the financial services sector a model
of co-regulation or embedded self-regulation that requires
industry players to spread amongst themselves the risk incurred
by the failure of their measures of self-regulation. Demarcating
areas of self-regulation without sharing risk failure transfers
the cost of such regulatory failure to consumers (Omarova,
2010).
My presentation will focus on consumer protection in the
financial services sector. I shall first deal with the:
• economics of consumer financial services that permits
the providers of the services to treat individual consumers
with disdain;
• lack of coherence in consumer financial services
regulation; and
• misguided tendency to present financial literacy as a
substitute for regulation.

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With these as the backdrop, I shall argue that we need to
adopt a consumer focus in financial services regulation. We
can only do this if we go back to the basics and begin by
recognising the:
• purposes for which consumers actually access the
financial services sector; and the
• problems faced by different categories of consumers in
their relations with the financial services sector.
In my conclusion, entitled ‘The Way Forward’, I will call
for a change in the regulatory architecture for consumer
financial services.

Economics of Consumer Financial Markets
Collectively, consumers are by far the greater users of
financial services. However, the atomised nature of their
individual transactions circumscribes their power.
Campbell, et al (2010) provide US data for 2009 - US
households held US$68.2tn in assets and US$14.0tn in liabilities
(mostly mortgage – US$10.3tn and consumer credit US$2.5tn).
By comparison, the corporate debt in the US was only
US$7.2tn. However, this very high level of consumer liabilities
involved a staggering number of transactions.
Visa and MasterCard had a combined annual transaction
volume of US$6tn comprised of 70 billion transactions. The
Mutual Fund industry assets exceeded US$10tn, but the
median investor has US$100,000 spread over four accounts.
The pattern of participation of consumers in the financial
markets of other countries is not unlikely to be markedly
different. The atomised nature of consumer transactions means
that the individual consumer is by herself insignificant to her
financial service provider. It is not surprising that financial
services top the list of consumer complaints in almost all
countries (Collins, 2012).

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Incoherent Consumer Financial Services Regulation
Consumer finance regulation in many countries is
characterised by a lack of a coherent policy and institutional
structure. There is an emphasis on classification by form, lack
of distinction between consumer and commercial transactions,
excessive technicalities, unregulated consumer products, and
the absence of a coherent policy for sanctions.
Few countries regulate consumer financial services in a
comprehensive manner. The regulatory schemes tend to focus
on the provider of services (institution type) and/or the
principal category of the services provided – banking, finance,
insurance, etc. Even in the area of credit regulation, the focus
may be on the type of product provided – money lending, pawn
broking, hire purchase, credit cards, etc. Also, not all financial
services (for instance, in the credit industry) are subject to
regulation. The regulation that exists is spread across a range
of statutes in a piecemeal fashion, each often stipulating very
different rights and duties.
Financial services statutes may permit the regulator to
control the conduct of service providers through the issue of
regulations, directives or guidelines. Such powers are often
not exercised, and where they are, a great variation in the
nature and extent of the regulation occur. Exemptions from
even the very limited regulatory control specified in statutes
and other forms of regulatory control are the norm in many
jurisdictions. Where this is the case, the regulatory framework
tends to be complex and disorderly and by their piecemeal
approach, fail to adequately provide for many categories of
consumer finance.
Credit can be and is a boon to individual consumers and
their families. It enables consumers to avail themselves of goods
and services without first having to save for the purchases. It
permits a higher standard of living than consumers can
immediately pay for. Consumer credit is central to the welfare

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61

of individuals and families, and it has been argued that access
to it should be made a human right (Yunus, 2006). Credit can
also be a bane to many individuals and families. Individuals
are often lured into excessive credit and costly debt with dire
consequences for the borrower and his family. The need to
save prior to purchasing a product calls for a deferment of
gratification; easy credit tempts consumers into impulse
gratification.
There is ample evidence that consumers are subject to unfair
credit-related practices. Time prohibits an examination of the
practices in a variety of credit forms. Let me just focus on the
credit card industry and for this I shall rely on the landmark
cross-national study entitled ‘Charging Ahead’ by Ronald
Mann (2010). It details the manner in which credit cards (as
opposed to debit cards) have been promoted. Mann describes
the “spending more, borrowing more and failing more” of
credit card use and evidences a marked correlation between
credit card debt and consumer bankruptcy filings. The
“sweatbox” model of credit card lending has become a
dominant strategy for the large debt-holding card issuers –
the trick is to make borrowers pay minimum payments for
long periods before defaulting. There has to be regulation of
the terms on which credit cards are marketed. Larger
mandatory minimum payments to amortise credit card balances
have to be required and there has to be a ban on marketing
and issue of credit cards to youth and college students.

Financial Information, Education, Literacy and
Capability
Greater financial education and information to engender
consumer literacy and capability has been given much lip
service as part of the ‘liberalisation’ of financial services.
Financial education has to be seen as complementary to

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regulation for consumer protection; certainly not as a substitute
for such regulation.
It is important not to confuse ‘information’ for ‘education’
- education is to develop the capacity to process the information
provided and cannot be achieved by simply increasing the
amount of information. Financial services regulators have to
ensure that disguised product marketing that exacerbates the
behavioural biases of consumers is not passed off as financial
education. There also needs to be recognition that many new
financial products cannot be understood by consumers even
with financial education.

Adopting a Consumer Focus
Regulation of consumer financial services needs a consumer
focus. And for this, it is necessary to go back to basics and
understand the use of financial services by consumers.
Consumers use financial services to perform five very different
functions (adapted from Campbell, et al, 2010; Tufano, 2009):
• Payment: as a mechanism for the transfer of money and
payment for goods and services. For this they use cash,
cheques, payment cards, postal and money orders, wire
transfers, remittances, online fund transfer tools like
PayPal, Automated Clearing House, etc.
• Borrowing: as a means to use future funds now. This
includes credit that is secured and unsecured - credit
cards, overdrafts, payday loans, student loans, auto
loans, mortgage loans, margin loans, and pawn broking.
It is now common for implicit borrowing to be built
into various derivative products, including options and
forwards, as well as through commercial structures, (for
example, hire purchase).
• Saving: as a means to store funds for future use. Saving
accounts, fixed deposits, variable annuities and provident

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63

funds are the usual means used by consumers for this
purpose.
• Investment: as a means to increase future funds. At first
it was mutual funds of ever increasing variety. Of late, a
plethora of investment products have been offered by
financial institutions, such as Initial Public Offerings,
government bonds, gold and silver, futures and options
and derivatives.
• Management of Risk: to mitigate financial risks,
principally by way of insurance, but also other financial
products (for example, put options to protect portfolio
declines).
Financial services providers tend to package their offer to
consumers such as to draw them away from savings into
investments without adequately revealing the cost of their
borrowing or the risks involved in their investments. They
take every opportunity to convert what is in savings into risky
investments with heavy upfront charges and transfer all risks
to the consumer with none borne by the financial institution.
There has been a range of new products, which claim to
perform a mix of the above mentioned five functions that
consumers seek from financial service providers. The products
offered are mislabelled such as to confuse consumers.
Regulation has failed to keep pace with the changes that have
occurred in the interaction between financial service providers
and consumers.

Consumer Status vis-a-vis Financial Services
Much of the popular and even academic literature relating
to consumer use of financial services tends to not deal with all
categories of consumers vis-à-vis financial services. There are

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actually four categories of consumers in relation to financial
services. The four categories are those:
1. Not included
2. Typical users of services
3. Financially distressed users of services
4. Excluded (those declared bankrupt)
I shall focus on categories 1 and 4 because they are not
traditionally emphasised in discussions of consumer protection
in financial services.

Financial Services Inclusion
Half of the world’s consumers do not have access to any
formal financial services (Demirguc-Kunt, et al, 2012). As is
to be expected, the deficit occurs in the developing world with
a particularly emphasised gender bias. The data for the use of
formal accounts is indicative. 50 per cent of the world’s adults
(2.5 billion) do not have a formal account. In the higher income
economies 89 per cent have an account compared to only 41
per cent in the developing economies. Whilst 46 per cent of
men have formal accounts, only 37 per cent of women do.
However, there is a consistent 6-9 per cent gender gap in all
economies.
Similar patterns are to be noted for use of electronic
transactions (ATM, debit cards, cheques and electronic
payments).
It is, therefore, not surprising that formal borrowing and
insurance are also relatively rare in the developing world. More
than 11 per cent have an outstanding loan for emergencies or
health-care needs, but more than 80 per cent use only informal
sources of credit. Of adults in developing countries working
in farming, forestry or fishing, only 6 per cent have crop, rainfall
or livestock insurance. It is a sad fact that 65 per cent of those

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without formal accounts list that they do not have a formal
account due to lack of money.
The other reasons given are instructive and can be more
readily addressed. The lack of use due to banks and accounts
being too expensive (25 per cent), banks being too far away
(20 per cent), missing documentation, no trust in banks,
excessive paperwork and the use of accounts of others (cited
more by women).
Some countries have already begun addressing the problem
of non-inclusion in a systematic fashion. The recent Indian
experience is noteworthy.
In 2011, India had a total of 85,000 bank branches but
only 32,000 catered for the rural population which comprises
70 per cent of the population. There were a total of 73,000
unbanked villages with a population of more than 2000. Only
17 per cent of the population held a bank account.
The Swabhimaan initiative – a nationwide financial inclusion
programme launched in February 2011 by the Government of
India and the Indian Banks Association aims to bring banking
services to 73,000 unbanked villages by March 2012 (Press
Information Bureau, 2011). A declared objective and incentive
of the programme is that government subsidies for the poor
would be channelled through the newly established bank
accounts thus reducing the substantial leakages that occur due
to inefficiencies and corruption. The 65 per cent who do not
have money to open formal accounts would now have a reason
to do so.
Governments (with support from international agencies,
service providers and educators) should remove physical,
bureaucratic and financial barriers needed to extend use of
financial services to the poor.

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The Financially Excluded
Bankruptcy law is often treated as separate from credit
law and its regulation, the purview of separate regulators. Yet,
bankruptcy is really the negative consequence of the use of
financial services. The study of Robert Mann (2010) cited
earlier is evidence of this.
Another landmark study also focusing on the US situation
is that by Katherine Porter (2008) entitled ‘Bank Profits: The
Credit Industry’s Business Model for Post bankruptcy
Lending’. The study evidences how distressed borrowers are
highly lucrative for lenders and how bankruptcy law itself
facilitates this business model. Creditors repeatedly solicit
debtors to borrow after bankruptcy, and they use bankruptcy
itself as an advertising lure. The same lenders that the families
could not repay before bankruptcy offer them credit. Debtors
report more difficulty in obtaining secured loans than
unsecured loans and persons who had opted for Chapter 13
(repayment) bankruptcy instead of Chapter 7 (liquidation)
bankruptcy have fewer opportunities to borrow. Lenders
stimulate and profit from financial distress.
In most countries, severe restrictions are imposed on
bankrupts. These may include:
• being barred from holding certain judicial and political
and even administrative or civil service appointments;
• being incompetent to maintain any action (other than
personal injury) without sanction of the bankruptcy
regulator;
• not to, without permission of a court or the bankruptcy
regulator, leave the country, operate a business, become
a director or be involved in the management of a
company, nor be involved, manage or be employed in
business belonging to the spouse or relative;
• not to borrow more than a minimum sum specified by
law without informing that he is bankrupt; and

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• not to own assets exceeding a specified sum in value
except wearing apparels for himself and his family.
The penalty for non-compliance of such already punitive
measures may be dealt with as contempt of court!
Bankruptcy regulation impacts both borrower and lender
behaviour and has to be treated as a part of consumer finance.

Credit Bureaus
The financial services industry maintains and/or relies on
credit bureaus operated by the public or private sector. In all
countries the operation of the bureaus may not be equitable
to consumers, especially since in many countries they are
exempt from data protection law. There may not be a statutory
duty or effective control of data collection, and of accuracy
and responsibility to notify the subject of the data collected
and maintained. Also there may be no specification of the
limitation period that will apply when data prejudicial to the
subject is maintained. In such circumstances, unauthorised
access, errors in entry and sanctions for incorrect information
are not provided for at all or are inadequately provided for.
Credit bureaus have to be regulated to ensure equitable
treatment of consumers.

The Way Forward
Consumer organisations have focused on the problems
relating to consumer credit and banking and insurance services.
They have emphasised on the need to focus on transparency
(prices, terms, conditions, and risks), fair treatment (including
rules to prohibit harmful products and services) and effective
redress (errors, complaints and abuses).
My contention is that our current focus will not in itself
help address the systemic flaws in the system. The current

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institutional structure for financial services regulation itself
needs to be reformed.
As noted earlier, regulation and supervision of financial
services in most countries does not serve the consumer interest.
Few developing countries have a Financial Services Authority
distinct from the central bank. Regulation of financial services
may be shared by a host of other regulators including specialised
insurance regulators, ministries of domestic trade and even
local government given oversight of particular financial
services, particularly of providers of credit such as
moneylenders and pawnbrokers. Nonetheless, the central bank
dominance is the norm.
Central banks act as the government’s banker and lender
of last resort. They also carry out a host of other functions,
including implementation of monetary policy, control of the
nation’s money supply, management of its foreign exchange
and gold reserves and the government’s stock register. A
principal objective of central banks is to maintain monetary
and credit conditions conducive to a high level of employment
and production (Eijffinger et al 2012).
In many countries, central banks are also responsible for
the regulation and supervision of banking and other financial
institutions. Given the wide ranging functions that central banks
are required to perform; it is questionable whether they should
also undertake the protection of consumers of financial
services.
The recent financial crisis has led to a re-examination of
the financial services regulatory architecture in several
countries. In others, this has come from recognition of the
changing nature of the financial services sector, especially with
many financial institutions moving across traditional
boundaries and financial activities.
An important consideration in the restructuring exercise
is whether a single agency can balance the role of prudential

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supervision with consumer protection without trade-offs that
serve the interest of financial service providers at the expense
of consumers.
Several countries have, therefore, moved towards what has
been referred to as a “twin peaks” system. As noted by the
Group of Thirty (2008), there is a growing interest in and
support for “regulation by objective” of the Twin Peaks
Approach to supervision. The Twin Peaks Approach is designed
to garner many of the benefits and efficiencies of the Integrated
Approach, while at the same time addressing the inherent
conflicts that may arise from time to time between the
objectives of safety and soundness of regulation and consumer
protection and transparency. When prudential concerns appear
to conflict with consumer protection issues, the prudential
supervisor in the twin peaks system may give precedence to
safety and soundness mandates, because these are closely
intertwined with financial stability. The Twin Peaks Approach
may help to force a resolution to this conflict.
The article entitled ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’ by Elizabeth
Warren (2007) is very persuasive as to why there needs to be
a specialised Consumer Financial Services Agency. In it
Warren deals with the US situation as regards credit and points
out that reckless and predatory lending by credit providers is
designed to deliberately ensnare lenders. For this, credit
providers build tricks and traps into credit products to ensnare
families in a cycle of high-cost debt. Warren indicates the
excessive technicality and misleading information in consumer
credit contracts and the increased intermediation and conflicts
of interest that occur in the consumer credit industry. The
situation in many countries is similar.
We need to move away from the current regulatory
structure that subsumes consumer protection within prudential
regulation. We need to create a Consumer Financial Services
Agency that has the consumer interest and will help focus on
the systemic flaws that result in the exploitation of consumers.

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References
Collins, M. ‘Financial Services Tops New Yorkers’ List of Consumer
Complaints’, Business Week ,2012 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
2012-03-06/financial-services-tops-new-yorkers-complaints.html
(accessed November 13, 2013).
Campbell, J.Y. et al, ‘The Regulation of Consumer Financial Products: An
introductory essay with four case studies’, HKS Faculty Research
Working paper Series RWP10-040, Cambridge, MA, John F Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University, 2010.
Demirguc-Kunt, A. and Klapper, L. ‘Measuring Financial Inclusion’,
Policy Development Research Working Paper, 6025. World Bank, The
Global Findex Database Development Research Group, Finance & Private
Sector Development Global, April 2012, pp.1-58. http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/04/19/
000158349_20120419083611/Rendered/PDF/WPS6025.pdf, (accessed
November 12, 2013).
Eijffinger, S.C.W. and Masciandaro, D., ‘Handbook of Central Banking,
Financial Regulation and Supervision: After the Financial Crisis’,
Northampton, MA, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012.
Fresh, A. and Baily, M.N., ‘What does international experience tell us
about regulatory consolidation?’ Pew Financial Reform Project, Briefing
Paper# 6, 2009. http://fic.wharton.upenn.edu/fic/Policy%20page/FreshBaily-International-Final-TF-Correction.pdf (accessed November 13,
2013).
Mann,R., Charging Ahead, New York, Cambridge University Press,
2010.
Omarova, S. T., ‘Rethinking the Future of Self-Regulation in the Financial
Industry’, Brooklyn Journal of International Law, Vol. 35, No. 3, 2010,
pp. 665-706, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1695031, (accessed November 12,
2013).
Pettifor, A. ‘Be angry at bankers, be angrier at economist’, The Guardian,
June 29, 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/29/
bankers-economists-judicial-public-inquiry (accessed November 12,
2013).

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Porter, K., ‘Bank Profits: The Credit Industry’s Business Model for
Postbankruptcy Lending’, Iowa Law Review, 93, 2008, pp. 1371-1421.
http://www.law.uiowa.edu/documents/ilr/porter.pdf (accessed November
13, 2013).
Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Swabhimaan,
Transforming Rural India through Financial Inclusion, 2012. http://
pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=84236 (accessed November 13,
2013).
Ramsay, I., Consumer law and Policy: Text and materials on Regulating
Consumer Markets, 2nd edn, Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2007.
Securities Commission Malaysia, Capital Market Masterplan 2, Kuala
Lumpur, 2011. http://www.sc.com.my/capital-market-masterplan-2/
(accessed November 13, 2013).
The Structure of Financial Supervision: Approaches and Challenges in a
Global Marketplace, Washington, DC, Group of Thirty, 2008. http://
www.group30.org/images/PDF/
The%20Structure%20of%20Financial%20Supervision.pdf (accessed
November 13, 2013).
Tufano,P. ‘Consumer Finance’, Annual Review of Financial Economics, 1,
2009, pp.227-247.
Warren, E. ‘Unsafe at Any Rate’, Democracy, Issue 5, Summer 2007.
http://www.democracyjournal.org/5/6528.php?page=all (accessed
November 12, 2013).
Woodward, S. E.,‘Consumer Confusion in the Mortgage Market’, Sand
Hill Econometric Working, 2004, pp.1-51. www.sandhillecon.com/pdf/
consumer_confusion.pdf (accessed November 12, 2013).
Yunus, M., Nobel Lecture, Oslo, The Nobel Foundation, 2006. http://
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/yunus-lectureen.html (accessed November 12, 2013)

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II. Regulatory
Issues

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7
Trade, Competition and
Consumer Protection
Supachai Panitchpakdi
Secretary-General, UNCTAD

T

he contribution of CUTS to the multilateral trading system
is not in a way that we can see easily and clearly in terms
of negotiations, or market access opening up, but in noting
that the results of our work at the WTO in terms of opening
up markets and setting up good rules that could be used in a
fair manner, in a way that would guarantee that consumers
would really have the choices, the quality and the standards
to the products and that the market powers would not be
abused. Because by liberalising the market powers you cannot
always have full control of what kind of impact would finally
be produced, particularly on the consumers.
We at United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) greatly appreciate this work that
CUTS has been contributing. The work that we have been
doing together in the areas of competition, consumer
protection policies, investment agreements and other areas
has been geared towards liberalising trade so that capacities
can be built and a kind of fairness could be guaranteed for the
consumers at large.

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CUTS is celebrating its 30th Anniversary, and next year
UNCTAD will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. It’s a long
time that UNCTAD has been around, and in the last eight
years on my watch we have always been working very closely
with CUTS. It is surprising to see that in three of the four
areas of the so called Singapore issues that have been
intensively debated before it was decided to pick one up, have
been covered by the activities at UNCTAD and actually under
my watch. I hope that it results in more intensive work in
these three areas. You might be surprised that if you look at
the areas of investment, competition and trade facilitation,
we have fairly well covered these three areas. This has been
achieved jointly with the WTO particularly, in certain areas
of negotiations where we have been advising and supporting
the processes.
The evolution of the thought processes in the last 30 years
provides a number of lessons to be learnt. Back in the 1990’s,
you might recall that we were witnessing a series of mega
mergers like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, General Electric,
Honeywell and also Microsoft. In those days we were
concerned because competition agencies around the world
had difficulties. Those that existed were having different
interpretations of how to deal with these mega mergers. At
the same time, we were seeing Europe move into a single
market entity where the theme of competition was
predominant.
A lot of people in the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) and WTO in those days were thinking that
some of these rules on competition and competition policies
could have some implications, particularly for market access.
There might be dominant powers on the market that could
move the market around, there could be some powers that
would limit participation in the markets or single out parts of
the market to be parceled out for different companies or groups

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of companies to be predominating over those markets etc. So,
quite a number of people were thinking, I think justifiably,
along that line. When you have trade liberalisation and more
market access, whether you would need flanking measures
along the line of protection of consumer interest and at the
same time to make sure that the gains that we have through
liberalisation would not be negated because people go into
anticompetitive practices.
Of course, some of us were thinking, by looking at the
practices of the WTO and the GATT in different areas, that
there were already some implications coming out of the way
WTO functions. If you look at anti-dumping, the trade remedial
policy, it is about how to counter unfair practices of below
cost prices that would actually distort the market and help to
corner the market in one way and try to exploit the market
later on. These kinds of predatory practices have already been
recognised in the way anti-dumping practices have been
resorted to more frequently.
If you look at the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement, it actually allows the kind
of the patent obligations that could be validated by
governments, giving actually some sort of anti-competitive
practices. Yes, because it gives something like proprietorship
to only those who own the IP. But with a fervent wish, that
this would lead to more innovation and more benefits for
investment and trade in the future. The sense of having this IP
and also some of the anticompetitive practices was there, which
actually restricts contestability in the markets with the logic
that those restrictions could promote larger degree of
innovation which in turn could lead to more competition.
We have seen in the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS) agreement, article VIII, that there is a
provision that prohibits monopolistic policies to limit the entry
or violate the national treatment. 30 years ago, there were

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those proponents of including competition into the framework
negotiations for more market access and for rule making
exercise.
Now on the other hand, there was also legitimacy in the
way that some of us have been saying “of course we might
need competition policy but won’t this kind of policy restrict
us in the way that we would have the need to have policy
space, to adopt certain anticompetitive policies for example
in the area of the infant industry agreement or in the area of
industrial policy that is now making a return at the moment”.
In those days in the 1990’s, a lot of countries in Asia for
example, the new Tigers, were using industrial policies with a
bit of the anti-competitive policies in the background to
promote some of this policy space.
There were others in those days who were saying “you
cannot work on this one-size-fits-all kind of agreement”. If
you look at investment, for example, you cannot have a uniform
investment agreement. You have seen the efforts at the OECD,
the multilateral agreement on investment; which has been
eventually been dropped. So you cannot think of doing this
with competition because countries have different background,
different sizes of companies in different countries. In some
countries, one huge company may not imply dominant power
but in some other economies with smaller size of the
companies, they can imply dominant power as well. So there
were legitimate objections to the one-size-fits-all kind of
agreement that could actually be accepted as general rules.
And of course there were some economists who were saying
in those days that you shouldn’t spend too much time on this
kind of rule-making exercise. There are much more urgent
policies to be carried out in terms of market reform. In and
prior to the 1990’s, governments were much involved in
interventionist policies. In those days, economists were saying
that you don’t need to go all the way looking at cartels,

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whatever kind of collusive actions but just look at the way
that government is driving policies forward. There have been
all sorts of arguments in favour and against taking up
competition rules at the multilateral level.
If you now look at the thought process, there is proliferation
of competition rules as they are being adopted throughout the
world. In the 1990’s there were less than 50 countries that
knew about setting up competition rules. During the
negotiations in the first WTO meeting in Singapore in 1995,
there were countries that just rejected it outright because they
didn’t know anything about it so they didn’t want to bother
themselves. Since then driven by work at UNCTAD and
CUTS the number of countries having these competition rules
in use last year went up to 122. We still need to grapple with
effective implementation of these rules. This is another problem
that we would have to think through in the future.
This is a change and an evolution of thought processes that
I appreciate. It is the way UNCTAD has been working with
CUTS to maintain the interests in some of the areas that could
not have been subjected to some of the intricate negotiations
at the WTO. There would be ways that we could apply some
of these competition rules in different settings. We have people
looking at the principles and joining us from time to time every
year with our governmental expert group as we try to
harmonise competition rules and consumer welfare protection
policies. It is also very pleasing to see that countries in
transition have emerged as market-oriented economies. They
are finding market-oriented economies to their benefit in the
liberal market system but at the same time need to supplement
this market liberalisation process with some form of
competition authorities.
And this afternoon, Frederic will chair the session on the
policy review that we have recently conducted for Ukraine.
And you would be surprised to see that in Ukraine the powers

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that are vested in their competition authorities are quite
significant. Much stronger than what I have seen in some
economies that are more liberal, more market oriented. Many
of these countries in transition are just really looking forward
to dealing with their own economies which are infested with
a sizeable, what they call, shadow economy. In some of the
economies in transition, shadow economy is more than 50
per cent.
We are seeing the rise of transnational corporations (TNCs)
involving themselves mainly in the global value chains (GVCs).
80 per cent of the global trading volume is now going through
GVCs operationalised by TNCs, through their international
investments spree. Everybody seems to be part of some chain
or the other. But at the same time by making these investments,
and having sizeable TNCs participating in the international
trade, countries around the world are pointing at some forms
of anticompetitive infringements because of the size of the
TNCs, and the way they group together to work in some
markets. Sometimes they come together to strengthen the
buying power, to render small economies more dependent on
a limited group of buyers so that they can control the markets.
Sometimes they use their power to limit the competition from
domestic companies. We have seen in Africa in the last 20
years the process of de-industrialisation. Some of us think that
it is because of the invasion of the sizeable foreign investors.
People are saying that there is a crowding out effect of some
of the domestic investment because of the foreign direct
investments.
If you look at the way the poor will be affected, SMEs have
not always been granted easy access. We would see that the
poor are not always afforded the best prices because some
collusive efforts resulting in unjustified high prices for some
essential products. If you look at food or pharmaceutical
products, medicines which are all essential products, you will

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question sometimes “why are the prices so high?” It is not
because of fundamental changes in demand and supply all the
time. We need to address that, not by just more market access
negotiations alone, but by taking care that the rule making
exercise which probably will be the future of the way we look
at the multilateral trade system.
The first thing is that when you look at the need to promote
competition and when you have the rules and regulations that
are being set up, competition rules and the economic rules
will need to be compatible. The problem is all these policies
are not always in the hands of the competition authorities.
Governments have to step in as they would have to take care
of the whole economic management policy. Many times you
could see governments stepping into different areas like
investment policies, economic policies in general. Government
becomes assertive because, for example, to be able to evolve
green economy, they would have to put in more rules and
regulations.
Most of the time they have restrictive effects on
competition. So while we are becoming more enthusiastic
about putting all the rules and regulations to maintain health
care, food safety nets etc., we have to make sure that they are
not really evoking the anti-competitive policies at the same
time. There must be some balance between economic
regulation, enabling state and the need to enhance competition.
The second area which we are seeing very frequently these
days is the so-called sectoral policies that are emerging for
example in areas such as electricity, water, IT, transportation,
carbon dioxide emissions, etc. All these sectoral policies will
need regulatory bodies to supervise fair implementation of
the rules. At the same time you have the sectoral policy,
sectoral regulatory body, co-existing with national competition
policies. Because of different jurisdiction of the different
sectors, they are not always in harmony. So in some cases you

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see clear conflicts. For example, in the banking sector, the
central bank may control the number of banks and interest
rate policy but they may not have the authority to watch over
bank clients. So the consumers of banking services are not
always well protected. Sometimes they are in the hands of the
competition policies which don’t always have the same policies
as the central bank. This is where banking policy could be
better harmonised.
We have seen more cross-border anticompetitive actions
in the cross-border mergers and acquisitions. TNCs have been
gaining in terms of size and activities around the world. There
is, therefore, great need for national policy makers to be
working together. But this is not always the case because
national competition committees have different rules and
regulations, particularly the confidentiality of relevant
information. It is always a question whether we can really
have the kind of policy harmonisation that we need. UNCTAD
has been working to try to reconcile all those differences,
facilitating different jurisdictions to exchange information and
have joint meetings.
Now we are trying to make things happen by putting
information online. There is now an effort to do what we call
a collaborative information platform. This is an online
databank, a virtual forum wherein competition authorities
around the world can share information, particularly on
investigation. The authorities can learn from each other as
investigations are being conducted sometimes along the same
line in the same sectors. These are some of the cooperative
efforts that would be more needed in the future when clashes
between competing policies can be avoided by a better
information system.

8
Capacity-Building in New
Competition Systems
Bill Kovacic
Professor, Global Competition Law and Policy
George Washington University

I

am happy for this opportunity to host the programme for
my fellow friends, panellists and the audience to celebrate
one of the great success stories in the operation of nongovernment organisations in public policy making today. I will
speak about capacity building: what we learn from other
experiences, its application to India, and in particular, focus
on contributions of CUTS to this endeavour.

Capacity Building
I am going to sketch six types of knowledge components
that mark the difference between an effective institution and
a less effective institution: technical knowledge of competition
policy and law; knowledge of local industry and economic
circumstances; skills training; skill and agency administration;
agency leadership and learning from other competition
jurisdictions.

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Concepts of Competition Law and Economics
First, and most basically the human knowledge that comes
from knowing something about competition law itself, i.e. its
goals and objectives is important. It is necessary to know about
trade-offs and choices made across the world and to know
some of the industrial organisation economics which is needed
for informing judgements about how the law should be applied.
Basic concepts are indispensable at the start but are hardly
enough to make the system more effective.
Local Economy and Circumstances of the Economy
Second indispensably is knowledge of local economic
conditions, i.e. how has the economy in the jurisdiction
functioned; how specific sectors operate; which sectors
perform well; what are the obstacles to effective performance
and superior economic results over time and what do firms
do and why do they do it.
In many institutions, we see the absence of people with
some experience in the private sector. If you have recruitments
of exclusive individuals who have worked all the way in civil
services, they would not have the intuition that comes from
spending a few years counselling businesses from the inside
and without some deeper understanding within the
organisation what businesses do and how they are organised.
Emphasis should be placed on creating the right team and
getting the right people to head a competition agency, who
have some work experience in the private sector in order to
understand how they function. Without this important
understanding, the agency would be in some sort of a deficit.
Thus, recruitment of the right people and the right level is one
of the key ingredients to ensure success of the institution.

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Skills Training
Next is skills training and the development of relatively
new systems over time and understanding the gap between
knowing the theory of competition law concepts, principles
and applying them in practice. How do you go back to
conducting an investigation? I remember my first incarnation
at the Federal Trade Commission in the late 1970s doing my
first investigation interview. There was a very successful and
capable advocate on other side. In the first half an hour, all I
could elicit was the name and address in an otherwise barren
exercise. By the time I did my 30th interview, I had a much
better grasp on how to design an investigation, e.g., interviews,
drafting documents, orders, analysing, testing and presenting
of evidence – all indispensable to an effective programme as
well as writing of reports and advocacy programmes to make
the viewpoint effective.
Agency Administration
Agency administration basically deals with the
infrastructure of how the organisation works; how it is
designed; and how does the human resources department
operate? These are very important for a competition agency,
especially a new agency. If it is doing a good job of recruiting,
it will face the wonderful dilemma of having people coming.
It is a very bad sign in a new organisation if nobody wants to
hire its people from the outside. You need a system in place
that is able to manage information and provide training and
counselling for those who are coming and joining the agency
and to keep institutional knowledge inside to have a system
that nullify conflicts.

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Agency Leadership
There are not many good courses you can take to run a
competition agency that tends to be on the job training. What
are some of the key things about leadership to form a strategy
to identify priorities, and how do you make your messages
known to the outside audience. The question is whether there
is politics in competition; how to deflect destructive pressure;
how to use the pressure on your audience; and how to build
good relationships with other government agencies.
Learning from Other Competition Jurisdictions
There are many examples in the world related to
competition law. Today, there are 120 competition agencies,
100 out of them were created since 1990, and there is now
increasing body of information that convey predictably about
the problems likely to be faced at various stages.
In the first five years of an agency, the opponents will
challenge your ability to collect evidence, scope of remedies
and interpretation of the statute. You need a First-aid Legal
Services Office inside to anticipate the mentioned challenges.
It is worth spending more resources getting the procedure
and process right because the opponents will hammer the
agency in the courts on these challenges. The success of the
agency is entirely dependent on the identity of a person who
is in-charge.

Realistic Expectations
Also the agency has to deal with the difficult problem of
setting expectations realistically. The enactment of
competition law is accompanied by expectations that things
will be done quickly. Building on a good system tends to be a
slow growth and a tricky process that leadership has to go
through while respecting the aspirations of the law. Things

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will not dramatically change; nobody gets it right on the first
day. The factor, the path of improvement is slow and gradual
and that is the key to improvement that leads to better results.

Measurement Benchmarks
To respond to questions on how one knows that the system
works, there is a need to develop measurement benchmarks.
How to do this? Circumstances will change, i.e. effort to
provide a system, is closely linked to individual needs of a
jurisdiction which is harder to determine than one thinks. The
problem is to provide good guidance about what needs to be
done. The role of the jurisdiction concerned is also important.
If you are a physician dealing with the patient your have to
know something about how to approach the patient and the
patient has to be truthful about his condition. If a patient is
not careful, honest and truthful and does not reveal where it
hurts and how much the problem is, it is not going to assist in
the preparation of a good diagnosis.

Long-term Engagement
Trust and understanding are required in the development
of good programme besides the right team and the relevant
expertise. If you have never worked on a merger, you are the
wrong person to tell the agency how to conduct merger
investigations. If you have never worked on a cartel programme
you are the wrong person to design cartel prosecutions. You
might be a wonderful competition specialist but you are not
the right person. Someone who is tied to the project with local
knowledge, local circumstances, someone working on more
similar conditions elsewhere, i.e. the development of
enterprises, i.e. what I call suitable personality. Someone who
has patience, knowledge, empathy and is willing to listen to
the long-term perspective is terribly important in this process.

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A famous recent example, in the country in which the
person was sent to work disliked to be there; did not like the
country, did not like the agency, had contempt for the people.
You can imagine that was not the fruitful contributor to a
good result in that jurisdiction.

Trends
Trends showing what’s getting better include the project
design characterised by longer-term views and more followups. Benchmarking and teaching materials have improved
dramatically with much more practical orientation with
respect to the transmission of know-how. There is also much
more focus on sensitive issues. Yet there is limited co-operation
on projects; and limited sharing about outcomes of individual
projects rather than taking a collective approach to a
competition over time. There is hardly any time to do research.
Institutional memory tends to be weak.

CUTS’ Contribution
Microeconomic Research Projects
One of the biggest contributions of CUTS is undertaking
in-country microeconomic research projects, relying on the
relevant local research. This is different from an outside
academic, who comes and studies, collects some souvenirs
and is gone, never to return. Having someone who is located
inside the country to research has the ability to conduct the
next study inside. Moving away from research done by the
development tourists and emphasising much more the work
done by indigenous specialists who are going to stay in the
country is remarkable.

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Attention to Local Conditions
Second CUTS has deep roots inside emerging market
environments which has brought much more attention to the
local conditions. The necessary starting point – what the right
structure is, what the right process of adaptation is, and what
the right path of implementing the programme is has been the
key to the success. The seminal contribution of CUTS through
its 7Up initiative, i.e. Bottom Up Approach in over 27 countries
in Africa and Asia is greatly acknowledged.
CUTS does this not as part of its formal participation inside
the government; but from outside. But if I give my own personal
testimonial for one of the most important contributions CUTS
has made in its 30 years, certainly in the 15 or so much I have
seen it; it is a highly valuable contribution – a rich contribution
to understanding local circumstances, local environment and
adapting competition policies. And if you look back at the
system over time, why do we celebrate anniversaries? We do
not celebrate for its own sake, it is celebrated to appreciate
contribution over time.

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9
Why People Fail in the
Struggle with Poverty
Eleanor M. Fox
Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Trade Regulation
New York University School of Law

The vicious circle that keeps people poor in
developing countries and the virtuous circle
that can save them

D

aron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson have written the
important book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of
Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012). The thesis of the book,
drawn from many deeply researched case studies, is that
nations succeed when they develop inclusive political and
economic institutions that unleash the potential of each citizen
to innovate and develop, and they fail when they maintain
institutions “that are structured to extract resources from the
many by the few.”
The book has a certain linkage with the Millennium
Development Goals. At the turn of the century, drawing
attention to the severe persistent poverty in developing

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countries, the United Nations promulgated the Millennium
Development Goals aspiring to halve the number of people in
severe poverty by 2015. The instruments for doing so are
largely aid-based – providing food, education, health care and
infrastructure to the nations and peoples most in need.
In these remarks I want to draw the connection between
inclusive institutions that unleash the potential of people,
which I will call empowerment, and the aid modalities that
are highlighted by the MDGs. I want to suggest that aid goals
must be supplemented by empowerment goals and that the
key to empowerment is the creation and maintenance of
markets that are accessible to the people on their merits and
not blocked by undue state or private restraints. This discipline
– making markets work and wresting them from extractive
governments and vested interests – is competition policy.
Whereas the aid goals, by definition, cost money and require
hand-outs, the empowerment goals cost nothing (except to
dismantle restraints); and when the restraints are dismantled
the need for the aid significantly disappears because the people
are, by definition, empowered to help themselves by doing
what they could do best all along.
Indeed, one might consider not that the market goals
supplement the aid goals but that the aid goals supplement the
empowerment goals. Good competition policy is the unnamed,
under-appreciated ninth millennium goal. Good competition
policy helps nations achieve inclusive economic institutions in
the sense articulated by Acemoglu and Robinson.
Why, then, do people fail to lift themselves out of poverty?
They fail because they do not have enough to eat
(malnourishment at an early age retards brain growth and
intelligence; approximately 16 million people in developing
countries are malnourished). They fail because the leaders of
their countries conspire against them by condoning and
entrenching corruption by the few with power (the national

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extractors), thus shutting off economic opportunity on the
merits. They fail because the developed countries of the world
conspire against them by disregard: exploiting the loopholes
in the world trading system (the vulnerable are always in the
loopholes), further shrinking opportunity on the merits. While
rich countries hand out aid to poor countries and protest that
all they want is the poor population to earn a living and enable
themselves, they embrace exclusionary trade and competition
practices that disable the poorer population from succeeding
on their merits.
Oxfam calls it: “Cultivating poverty.” Not just tolerating
it; cultivating it. The earnings that the poorer population would
realise if the anticompetitive barriers were dropped exceed
the amount of the aid that the rich nations give, as observed
by distinguished Financial Times journalist Martin Wolf.
Thus, to summarise, people fail because: 1) The children
do not have enough to eat, nor do they have adequate schools;
2) Corrupt national leaders “eat” the supper of the poor, and
national legislators build perverse state barriers through selfinterest or lack of concern; and 3) The developed nations
violate the norms of cosmopolitanism and exploit the
vulnerable populations in developing countries, disabling poor
farmers from doing what they can do better than the western
farmers, through subsidies and export cartels.
Categories two and three invoke their nemesis, competition
policy. Good competition policy would give the people a better
chance and provide the earnings to counter hunger. The
categories are intertwined. Only by addressing them all and
together can the nations and their peoples avoid the traps of
failure. I want to tell five stories.

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People fail because they are malnourished
For my first story: Nine years ago I read an editorial in the
New York Times that I cannot forget. It was called “A Better
Way to Fight Poverty.” It is a story of a school in a village in
Kenya called Sauri. Anne Omolo, the then new head teacher
of the only primary school in Sauri, arrived at the school to
find that all of the children were listless, performed poorly,
and missed many classes. What was the problem? She
discovered that it was food; the children were hungry; they
did not get enough to eat. She started a food programme. She
found a few parents who could bring in a little extra; but still,
there was not enough to go around. There were 100 students.
Omolo had to make a terrible choice. She decided to give out
the food only to the top two grades – 7 and 8 – because soon
these students would be taking national exams in hopes to
move on to high school. The younger children went to the
windows to watch the older children eat. And the older
children came alive. They went to school every day. They had
energy and excitement. Their scores shot up, and they did
well in the national exams.

People fail because officials are corrupt and legislators
enact monopolistic laws
My second story is about corruption. I was in Tanzania in
2009 on a technical assistance trip. Godfrey Mkocha, who
was then head of the Competition Commission, gave me a
book, It’s Our Turn to Eat, by Michela Wrong. I imagined
from the title that the story of the book would mirror the
school in Sauri; food was so scarce, the family members would
have to take their turns. Of course, as many of you know, it
turned out to be something very different. The tribe in power
would take its entitlement: bribes and corrupt payments. When
administrations changed, the tribe newly in power would take

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its turn to extract bribes and divert public resources. Resources
never got used for their intended purpose. The officials would
siphon them off for their personal gain. They set up shell
corporations to receive the money authorised by government
(themselves) for education, healthcare, food, and
infrastructure. The schools and roads never got built.

People fail because they are hurt by state-related
economic constraints
My third story is about state monopolistic restraints. The
economic restraints that hurt the people the most are usually
state-related. In Kenya there is a marketing board for
pyrethrum – a plant. The blossoms of the plant are made into
an extract which is a very important insecticide for crops.
Kenya, at one time, had an open market in pyrethrum, and the
business flourished. It was selling 80 per cent of the world
production. Then the government set up a marketing board
with exclusive rights. The marketing board was the monopoly
buyer of the plant and the monopoly seller of the extract. Tens
of thousands of farmers were thrown out of business as a
result of the state monopoly. The Competition Authority of
Kenya, supported by the World Bank, launched a campaign to
reform the law. Success is on the horizon.

People fail because of the disregard and exploitation
by the developed world
My fourth story is about trade and competition. As noted,
Oxfam undertook a study which it called Cultivating Poverty.
The study was about subsidies, especially cotton subsidies that
the US and EU give to their farmers; almost all goes to big
agriculture. The subsidies naturally induce the westerners to
over-produce cotton and to sell it to the world at artificially

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low prices. Farmers in Benin can produce cotton at two-thirds
of the cost in the West. But the West exports cotton to African
countries at a price lower than the farmers’ costs. Many of
them and their families starve.
Corn is also subsidised. American corn farmers receive
more in subsidies than the entire gross domestic product of
Burkina Faso – a country of more than two million people,
most of whom depend on corn production. American corn
farmers receive three times more in subsidies than the entire
US Agency for International Development (USAID) budget
for Africa’s 500 million people.
Martin Wolf calls this phenomenon – selective illiberal trade
policy by the touters of free trade – “the hypocrisy of the
rich.”

People fail because of cartels
Story 5. Canada and Russia have potash export cartels.
Potash is one of the ingredients in fertiliser that the farmers
need to grow their crops, especially in Africa. The potash
producers fix prices for export, raising them by 600 per cent,
thereby inflating a necessary input and helping to impoverish
the farmers in Africa. When confronted with the injustice as
well as the inefficiency of their conduct, with the fact that
Canadians cannot legally price-fix to buyers in Canada, and
with the fact that the principle against price-fixing cartels is a
world norm (albeit a soft norm; there is no world law), Canada
answers: The cartel is important to Saskatchewan and its
economy.

Conclusion
Why do poorer people fail to lift themselves out of poverty?
Their countries and the world conspire against them, depriving
them of their best chances to help themselves. They are caught

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in the vicious circle of not enough food and thus diminished
capabilities from birth, and blocked opportunity fired by
corruption, government barriers, and public and private
restraints on trade and competition that enrich the few and
hurt the many. But there is a virtuous circle on the horizon,
marked by an inclusive economic and political environment
and inclusive competition policy, in the spirit of Acemoglu
and Robinson. Personal economic empowerment is a better
way to fight poverty.

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III. Trade &
Development

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10
30 Years that have Changed
the Face of World Trade
Pascal Lamy
Director General, World Trade Organisation

I

will speak under the interesting thematic focus of “30
years that have changed the face of world trade”. It is an
opportunity to look back on how the world of trade has
evolved over the last three decades.
In the last few months I have, on a number of occasions,
been asked to look back on my eight years in the WTO;
occasionally even on the over two decades that I have spent
dealing with economic and trade issues.
But today is special. Special because I have been asked to
reflect on how global trade and the multilateral trading system
have changed over the last 30 years. Perhaps because that is
exactly the same timeline in which Consumer Unity & Trust
Society – CUTS as we all call it now – has transformed from a
modest organisation providing an umbrella to small consumer
groups in rural Rajasthan to a truly global institution respected
by governments and civil society alike.
CUTS made its entrance into the local scene in 1983
through a wall newspaper Gram Gadar; which my Indian

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translators tell me means ‘Village Revolution’. And it is now
in the global scene. CUTS has changed over the last 30 years
and so too has the geo-political landscape. We have seen the
rise of emerging countries and a shifting balance of economic
and political power. These changes are also reflected in how
global trade has matured in this period. In the early 1980s, the
face of world trade was completely different; for one, the WTO
did not even exist! The General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade
(GATT), the WTO’s predecessor, was often dismissed as an
exclusive members-only club. So perhaps the most important
change that I will begin with is the much more universal nature
of the WTO membership we have today.
There has been an exponential change from the 89 GATT
contracting parties in 1983 to the 159 members of the WTO
today, the majority of which are developing countries. Today,
24 countries are at various stages in the process of accession
— with at least Yemen, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kazakhstan and the Seychelles at advanced stages. These
accessions need to be fast-tracked in earnest because their
pending conclusion remains the ‘last frontier’ we need to cross
for the WTO to be a truly universal organisation.
What is the next big change that comes to mind when I
look back over 30 years of global trade? Trade is today less
about whole products and services, and more about trade in
tasks along value chains which often span not just across
countries but also continents. It is, therefore, no surprise that
the breadth and scope of what the WTO rules now cover has
significantly expanded as compared to 30 years ago.
In the 1980s, trade in goods measured in volume accounted
for around US$2tn. In 2012, it accounts for at least US$18tn.
Between 1982 and 2012 merchandise trade increased by an
annual average of around 8 per cent. In the early 1980s, while
services were known to be important in their own right, we
did not have a multilateral agreement covering this sector.

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Similarly, today we practically take for granted the obvious
role that intellectual property rights play in boosting innovation,
driving manufacturing and industrial growth; and often lose
sight of the fact that 30 years ago, there were no multilaterally
agreed rules in this area. In addition, while there were some
very elementary rules on agriculture trade, we certainly had
not started to think it possible to discipline agriculture in the
same manner as manufacturing and definitely not in the way
envisaged in the draft texts on the table in the Doha Round.
And I could go on and on; especially if I look at the way
issues like government procurement, information technology,
electronic commerce, technology transfer, trade, debt and
finance, environment and trade facilitation have permeated
the fabric of global trade discussions.
At the same time, we have also mainstreamed discussions
on issues like sustainable development and Aid for Trade (AfT)
into our work, something which would not have necessarily
been seen as under the ‘trade’ rubric 30 years ago.
If I had a crystal ball, and I could look into the future,
perhaps what I would see would make even these changes
look mild. But given that these are my last few weeks here, I
better keep my views on the ‘issues of the future’ to myself, at
least until I recover my freedom of speech!
Launching of an ambitious trade round in Doha — with
close to two dozen topics for negotiations and work, and more
importantly with a strong and central focus on development,
is another milestone in the history of the multilateral trading
system. Placing development at the core of the Doha
negotiations means two things: a clear acknowledgement that
more open trade can work for development. But it also means
that trade opening must be accompanied by trade capacity
building – AfT – for it to work. Now of course, we all know
the real success is the conclusion of these negotiations which
we all hope will happen in the not too distant future.

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While the bulk of successive GATT rounds brought
industrial tariffs down but for tariff peaks, Doha presents the
opportunity to address relevant barriers to trade today such
as non-tariff barriers, border red tape and deepening the
opening of trade in services. It also offers an opportunity to
ensure trade is supportive of sustainable development by
tackling fisheries subsidies and opening up trade in
environmental goods and services. All of these are extremely
relevant for the proper functioning of value chains.
Any discussion on changes in the world of global trade
would be incomplete without a mention of the WTO’s dispute
settlement system. There is no real comparator in terms of
time efficiency and quality of judgements delivered. There is
also no comparator in terms of depth of members’ ownership
in the findings of WTO panels and Appellate Body reports.
And yet in 1983, the GATT still operated on the lean provisions
of GATT Articles XXII and XXIII: a system whose very
design locked it into an inherent weak operational structure.
I do not think that the founders of the WTO could have
envisaged the remarkable contribution it has made to global
economic stability. Its predecessor, the GATT, had no doubt
laid the foundation for global co-operation on international
trade regulation, and made its remarkable contribution to
maintaining world peace. But this young organisation; yes we
are only18 years old has not only contributed to global peace
and security by strengthening the reliance of nations on one
another for trade but, in the last three years, through its
periodic transparency and monitoring exercise, has also
prevented nations from adopting wide scale protectionist
measures.
And finally, there has been a huge change in the negotiating
dynamics that have come about in the last 30 years. In today’s
WTO, it is unimaginable that an agreement amongst the ‘Quad’
of the 1980s is sufficient to conclude a deal.

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While I no doubt share the global optimism at the evolution
of a more balanced power equation within the WTO, perhaps
on a personal level I am most pleased with the remarkable
change in the negotiating prowess of the least developed
country (LDC) group. 30 years ago, it was inconceivable that
LDCs would be a force to reckon with in multilateral trade
negotiations. Today, LDCs have common, well researched
positions that have helped to place their agenda at the fore of
multilateral negotiations.
In sum, the multilateral trading system has witnessed radical
transformations. What was once a members-only club has its
doors open to all, not least the non-governmental organisations
(NGOs). Perhaps there are some parallels between the
evolution of CUTS and the growth of the WTO: the quest to
develop global organisations that are open to organic growth,
reflecting the ever changing needs of the global economy in
which we operate. This has been my philosophy – and the
core of my efforts – as Director-General of this organisation.
As I wind up my term of office here at the WTO, I believe
there is an ever-important role that organisations like CUTS
and other civil society organisations can play in keeping the
multilateral trading system accountable to the development
challenge. From wherever I will be, I will remain an ardent
supporter of such initiatives.

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11
The Future of Global
Trade Policy
Martin Wolf
Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, London

T

he onward march of globalisation is among the greatest
economic and political stories of our era. Behind
globalisation lie both deliberate policies of liberalisation and
the revolution in communications and information technology.
The latter, in turn, has allowed the emergence of integrated
systems of production and distribution, managed by a new
breed of global companies. The most important economic and
political consequence of contemporary globalisation has been
the “great convergence” of average incomes between the highincome countries of today and the emerging countries. As
Arvind Subramaniam and Martin Kessler note, in an important
recent paper:
“Until the late 1990s, only about 30 per cent of the
developing world (21 of 72 countries) was catching up
with the economic frontier (the US), and the rate of
catch-up was about 1.5 per cent per capita per year.
Since the late 1990s, nearly three-quarters of the
developing world (75 of 1033 countries) started catching

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up, at an accelerated annual pace of about 3.3 per cent
per capita. Although developing country growth slowed
during the global financial crisis (2008-12), the rate of
catch-up with advanced countries was not materially
affected and remained close to 3 per cent.”2
This, in brief, is a world transforming.
The deliberate opening of economies to trade within a rulesgovernment global trading system, has been the bedrock upon
which the globalised economy has been built. Rising
globalisation is, therefore, the theme of the first section of
this lecture. The second section will examine why liberal trade
policies have proved so robust, despite high unemployment
and rising inequality in crisis-afflicted high-income countries.
The third section will consider the challenges coming from
outside the trade policy regime. In the final section, I will look
at the challenges from within the trade policy regime.

The Rise of Globalisation
In their important analysis of what has happened, Arvind
Subramaniam and Martin Kessler of the Peterson Institute
for International Economics, in Washington DC, note seven
important features of contemporary trends in the world
economy:
1. Hyperglobalisation: greatest openness to trade and
investment in world economic history.
2. Dematerialisation of trade: rising importance of services.
3. Goods versus services: decline of barriers to trade in
goods, but continued high barriers to trade in services.
4. Universalisation: widespread embrace of globalisation.
5. Two-way flows: similarity of North-to-South trade and
investment flows to South-North flows.
6. Mega-traders: rise of China.

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7. Discrimination: proliferation of regional and preferential
trade agreements and the current discussion of megaregional ones.
First, hyperglobalisation is indeed the salient feature of our
era. Between 1990 and 2005-07, the value added of foreign
affiliates rose from 4.6 per cent to 8.2 per cent of global
product, the stock of foreign direct investment jumped from
9.4 to 31.6 per cent of global product and exports of goods
and services rose from 19.7 to 29.8 per cent of global product.
Moreover, the crisis has not caused a fundamental break in
the trends. Instead, we see modest further increases in
openness: in 2012, value-added of foreign affiliates was 9.2
per cent, the stock of foreign direct investment was 32.9 per
cent and exports of goods and services were 31.3 per cent of
global product. (See chart.)

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Second, manufacturing and services have both become
increasingly traded. None the less, the production of goods is
still more open to trade than production of services. In the
case of services, a huge divide in tradability has now opened
up between services that can be turned into bits and so be
transmitted costlessly across the globe and those that require
face-to-face contact. Data on gross value of trade exaggerates
its economic significance for goods, but underestimates its
significance for services. This is because services are included
within the gross exports of goods.

Third, a part of the reason for the lower degree of openness
of services than of goods (particularly manufactures) is that
barriers to trade are substantially higher in the former than
the latter. This is partly because the liberalisation of services
only began during the Uruguay Round. The conventional
barriers to trade in goods are now very low, particularly in
the high-income countries. This is much less true for services.
Nevertheless, barriers to trade have been falling for both goods
and services. Yet the economic opportunity afforded by

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liberalisation of trade in services is clearly greater than that
afforded by liberalisation of trade in goods.
Fourth, the current era is one of universal globalisation.
The average ratio of trade to GDP has risen from about 10
per cent in the mid-1950s to close to 25 per cent now. The
latter is far higher than in 1913, when it was just below 15
per cent. Never before in the field of global commerce have
so many countries been so open to trade in so many products
and services.
Fifth, trade and investment flows are becoming increasingly
similar, in both directions. At first, this largely took the form
of intra-industry trade among high-income countries. Then it
increasingly took the form of two-way trade in parts and
components within internationally integrated value chains,
particularly between the high-income countries and Asian
suppliers and among Asian suppliers. Finally, flows of FDI
are also increasingly two-way, with substantial FDI by
emerging countries in high-income ones.

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Sixth, the world is seeing in China the emergence of a new
core country in world trade. China’s role is exceptional,
because it is far more open to trade than other large economies
and is also potentially much the biggest economy in the world.
It seems quite likely that China will be much the biggest trader
by the 2030s.
Finally, preferential trade has become increasingly
important. Today, about half of the exports of the top 30
exporters go to preferential trading partners, but preferences
still only cover about 17 per cent of world trade. Between
1990 and 2001 the number of Preferential Trade Agreements
(PTAs) increased from 70 to 300. Finally, in the mid-1990s,
about 75 per cent of preferential trade arrangements were
regional; by 2003, this had dropped to about 50 per cent. All
members of the WTO, except Mongolia, have concluded at
least one PTA. Some have concluded more than 20. Particularly
important is the fact that, over the last 10 years nearly 40
agreements have included provisions on “WTO-plus” issues,
such as competition policy, intellectual property rights,
investment and capital mobility.3

Globalisation during the Crisis
Protectionism is the dog that has barely barked. Yes, it has
proved impossible to complete the Doha Round of multilateral
trade negotiations, but this is not really because of the financial
crisis. There have also been some protectionist actions. That
is hardly surprising. But it is remarkable that the open trading
system has survived not only the biggest recession since the
1930s, but a far longer period of rising inequality and worsening
labour market prospects for a large proportion of the citizens
of the high-income countries. Indeed, trade made a remarkable
recovery after its collapse in 2009.

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The question is why the open trading system has proved so
much more robust than in the 1930s and so what that tells us
about its likely future. We can identify five mutually supportive
explanations:
1. Institutions: role of the WTO.
2. Interests: role of multinational companies.
3. Ideas: triumph of the ideology of market openness.
4. Welfare: role of social safety nets.
5. Divergence: success of emerging countries.
First, the commitment to liberal trade is now entrenched
in global institutions whose commitments have become a
component of domestic law. This is not only true of the WTO.
It is also true of regional agreements. The WTO, in addition,
has a dispute resolution system that countries do not wish to
violate openly, since they do not know when (or if) they
themselves will need to take resort to the system. No such
institutionalised system existed in the 1930s. Trade policy was,
instead, a creature of domestic politics.
Second, global capitalism has largely replaced national
capitalism. This is particularly true in manufacturing. Thus,
instead of shared interests between companies and their
employees, those interests are now split. Similarly, the interest
of owners of capital is increasingly in the returns available
from an internationally open capital market rather than from
profits on domestic activities. Capital has become increasingly
cosmopolitan. It is not an accident that agriculture remains
highly protected. This is the one goods-producing sector not
dominated by multinational enterprises, but rather by small
national ones. Meanwhile, organised labour and the working
class have experienced devastating collapses in their
significance, as the economy has gone back to the future: to
something that looks increasingly 19th century in character.

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Third, 1989 has trumped 2008. The collapse of the Soviet
empire demolished the credibility of alternatives to the market
economy. This has remained true, so far, despite the antiglobalisation movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s and
even the financial crisis itself. Indeed, it is quite remarkable
how well the commitment to the market has survived the
devastating collapse of the core of the market economy – the
financial system. Whether this will continue to be the case is,
inevitably, an open question.
Fourth, albeit battered, state-funded social safety nets exist
in all the high-income countries and provide a degree of
support unthinkable in the 1930s. It is probably also important
that the old are a relatively large proportion of the population:
the old barely rely on employment and large depend on state
benefits, instead.
Finally, the high-income countries have not wished to
abandon a system of open markets that they themselves
created. Meanwhile, emerging countries have prospered since
2009 and, for this reason, see no reason to abandon the
openness that has brought remarkable rewards for so many
of them.

Challenges from outside the Trading System
In all, then, the story is one of astonishing success. It has
proved possible to achieve and then sustain an unprecedented
degree of openness to trade (and, more recently, direct
investment), across the globe, despite the recent challenges of
a huge financial crisis and subsequent global recession. So what
are the challenges ahead? I suggest the following:
1. Imbalances: the link between trade and exchange rates.
2. Climate change: trade and the global environment.
3. Inequality: trade and wages.

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First, as John Maynard Keynes argued, liberal trade
becomes problematic if exchange-rate intervention is used as
a successful alternative to protection. This is what the
Australian economist, Max Corden, called “exchange rate
protectionism”. Normally, that has been a small problem:
either the intervention or the macroeconomic impact has been
small. But between the Asian crisis of 1997-98 and today,
both assumptions have proved to be false: the imbalances
became huge; the intervention in foreign currency markets
was also enormous; and the ability of countries to offset the
impact of the intervention through monetary and fiscal policy
proved quite limited, once interest rates hit the zero bound. It
is possible – even likely – that, once the high-income countries,
particularly the US, recover, these imbalances will rise rapidly,
once again. If so, this might strengthen arguments for
countervailing action.

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Second, a big challenge arises over global environmental
externalities. A basic assumption of the trade policy regime is
that subsidies are distorting. But what happens if a group of
countries agree to impose a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide
or a subsidy for low-emission technologies. The argument, in
both cases, is that this internalises a global externality. If so,
such a policy does not represent a distortion, but rather the
removal of one – a failure to deal with a global distortion.
Now, go further. Assume that, as a result of a tax, production
shifts from the country imposing it to a country that does not
impose it. Aggregate emissions will not fall. They may even
rise. The country imposing the tax can argue that it has a right
to prevent the shift in production, since this concerns a global
rather than a local externality. This then creates a case for a
countervailing duty on imports of products that are produced
in emissions-intensive ways. Indeed, one can argue that this is
the best way of producing a global regime of carbon pricing.
Third, there is the question of the link between trade and
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is much debate over how strong this link actually is. A plausible
answer is that it has been a part of the explanation, particularly
for the decline in well-paying job opportunities in the middle
of the wage distribution, as employment in manufacturing
collapses, but other factors were also at work, including
changes in technology and corporate governance,
developments in social mores and the rise of winner-takes-all
markets.
The best mechanism for dealing with the distorting impact
of currency intervention would be a global agreement within
the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Similarly, the best
mechanism for dealing with the challenge of the global
environment would be an effective treaty. Finally, the best
way to deal with the rise of inequality would be taxation of
the winners. But all these are problematic: progress is unlikely
to be made within the IMF on contentious exchange rate
issues; the ability to reach a binding and effective treaty on
climate change is constrained by disagreement over the
urgency of the task, by the number of parties that would have
to agree and the distributional issues – intergenerational,
interpersonal and international – that would have to be
resolved. Finally, the rising mobility of capital, both corporate
and personal, and the growing political power of its owners
has made it far more difficult to raise taxes.
These challenges may either not be resolved, making the
outcome of liberal trade far less beneficial than it could be, or
they will be resolved in a malign way, via rising disintegration
of the liberal global economy, as is already happening, to some
degree, in finance.

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Challenges from within the Trading System
In addition to the challenges from outside the trading
system, there are also three challenges from within it. These
are:
1. Doha Round: Failure to complete and consequent loss
of legitimacy.
2. Mega-regional negotiations: the plan to launch the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic
Partnership (TAP), with the US as the hub.
3. China: the need to bring a new hegemonic trade power
fully into the system.
The three challenges are self-evidently connected.
One of the reasons for pursuing the mega-regionals is that
the Doha Round is seen to have failed, largely because the
most recalcitrant members of the WTO hold it hostage. Again,
a reason for launching the mega-regional negotiations is that
it allows like-minded countries to pursue discriminatory
liberalisation, at the expense of China. Yet it is also quite clear
that these strategies are dangerous. There is a risk that the
result will be to split the trading system, as competition emerges
between a rising China and a declining west, both trying to
impose their own views of how the system should work on
their trading partners.
Is there a way of avoiding or at least mitigating this danger?
Yes, is the answer. As I have argued on previous occasions it
would be possible to negotiate a single advanced preferential
trading arrangement, to embrace both the TPP and the TAP,
with the simple proviso that any country, not least China, would
be able to join, provided it accepted the disciplines embodied
in this agreement, though undeveloped countries should be
accorded the benefits unilaterally and freely. The advantages
of this approach are that it would encourage further
liberalisation among a widening coalition of the willing. At

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the limit, the new arrangement could become an agreement
within the WTO.
This proposal might work better than that of a “China
Round” proposed as an alternative to the Doha round by
Subramaniam and Kessler. But it is necessary to retain
scepticism on both alternatives. As the World Bank’s Bernard
Hoekman notes:
“It is not at all obvious that killing off the Doha Round and
launching a new ‘China Round’ will make a difference in this
dynamic. A number of the policies for which the European
Union and the US would like to negotiate disciplines are going
to be difficult to agree on (for example, the role of state
ownership of companies, industrial policies, and government
procurement). The fundamental constraint that is precluding
the Doha Round from being concluded – namely that the US
and the European Union have little to offer – continues to
apply. The same reasoning suggests that the extent to which
the ‘mega-regionals’ will put ‘pressure’ on Brazil, China, and
India to come to the negotiating table may be limited. Much
will depend on the extent to which incentives result in
economically meaningful outcomes and the degree to which
these outcomes imply discrimination against products coming
from non-parties.”4
While such open preferentialism could, in theory, reconcile
plurilateralism with multilateralism and preferences with nondiscrimination, this does not mean that the new approach
would actually work, in practice. The obstacles to reaching a
successful agreement on these mega-regional deals are large,
as Hoekman notes. While the gains from further liberalisation
of services and from some combination of mutual recognition
and harmonisation of regulatory standards could be substantial,
these are profoundly contentious issues, as the European Union
has discovered. Agricultural issues – including over genetically
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very good chance therefore that the new plurilateralism would
fail, further undermining the credibility of liberalisation.

Conclusion
The global trade regime is a troubled triumph. The onward
march of globalisation demonstrates that it is indeed a triumph.
The difficulties it now faces show that it is a troubled one. It
is troubled partly because of its very success: the easy part has
been done; and it has also become increasingly intrusive. At
bottom, the challenge is that of making global governance
work in an era of “hyperglobalisation”, the “great
convergence”, global environmental challenges, financial crises
and rising inequality in high-income countries. The trading
system has to respond to that challenge. But it cannot deal
with it successfully on its own. The era when trade could be
successfully separated from other policy concerns is now over,
largely because the world economy has become so open and
so integrated. A hyperglobalised world will need a greater
degree of global governance. The challenge is huge. But it is
also inescapable.

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Endnotes
1

Arvind Subramaniam and Martin Kessler, “The Hyperglobalization
of Trade and its Future”, 2013, http://www.gcf.ch/wp-content/
uploads/2013/06/GCF_Subramanian-working-paper-3_-6.17.13.pdf.
See also Bernard Hoekman, “Comment on ‘The Hyperglobalization of
Trade and its Future’ by Arvind Subramaniam and Martin Kessler,
http://www.gcf.ch/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/GCF_Subramanian_Comments-by-Hoekman_6.17.13.pdf.

3

Richard Baldwin, “21st Century Regionalism: Filling the Gap between
21st Century Trade and 20the Century Trade Rules”, Policy Insight
No. 56, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Washington D.C.,
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/policyinsights/PolicyInsight56.pdf.

4

Bernard Hoekman, Comments on “The Hyperglobalization of Trade
and Its Future,” by Arvind Subramanian and Martin Kessler, http://
www.gcf.ch/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/GCF_Subramanian_Comments-by-Hoekman_6.17.13.pdf

12
Global Trade Can Help
Us End the Need for Aid
Justine Greening
Secretary of State for International Development, UK

F

or 30 years CUTS has often been one of the few voices to
make the case for free trade and for citizens to be
empowered by openness, transparency and accountability.
They have argued that a trading system combined with
consumer rights is essential for growth alongside poverty
reduction.
If you ask people in developing countries what they want,
they will name important topics like education, water and
health. Often these will be different whether it’s a woman or
man answering the question. But it is interesting that their top
priority, no matter the gender, will almost always be a job.
Sustainable, secure jobs give people in the world’s poorest
countries the chance to work their way out of poverty; the
chance to provide for their families and to end a dependency
on aid. It gives everybody the chance to be part of the global
economy.
That is why I and the government have been clear that my
department’s focus should be on economic development.

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Across the world Britain is helping boost investment and
improve the business climate. We are improving basic services
– health, education, water and sanitation. Many of these are
the building blocks of a successful economy.
But among all this work we have not lost sight of one crucial
fact. Ultimately trade is the most important driver of growth.
Look at China and their recent record on poverty reduction,
which has gone hand in hand with a huge increase in trade
and economic growth.
Trade between nations creates jobs and prosperity. It drives
down prices and increases choice.
It is in all our interests, from the fisherman in Kenya to the
financier in Kent, for the world’s poorest countries to reap
the benefits of free and fair trade.
Many of these emerging countries, which are seeing
skyrocketing growth rates, are also countries in which the
Department for International Development (DFID) works,
such as in sub-Saharan Africa. These are Britain’s future
trading partners. Building economic growth and creating jobs
is not only good for developing countries, it benefits Britain
too, by creating new markets for British businesses to invest
in.

UK Approach to Trade and Development
This government is absolutely committed to keeping
development at the heart of our approach to international
trade.
This does not mean protecting poor countries from the
world, sheltering them from competition. It’s about opening
markets to them, building on the obvious desire of developing
countries to be part of and to benefit from the global economy.
As the Prime Minister said at G8 Summit, in an integrated
world protectionism is not just “beggar my neighbour” but
“beggar myself”.

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I would like to echo what Martin has said about the central
importance of the WTO in maintaining global commitment to
an open trading system. At Lough Erne the Prime Minister
committed to work to help deliver an agreement on trade
facilitation at the WTO Ministerial meeting in December.
A deal, if it comes off, to make it easier to move goods
across borders could add US$70bn annually to global income
and provide a much-needed boost to the global economy.
I know that there are different opinions on this, so let me
just underline my view. It is perfectly consistent to pursue
bilateral trade deals but also to be a firm believer in the
multilateral system. In fact, I am convinced that bilateral deals
can actually be key building blocks for a stronger multilateral
system in time because they accelerate the pace of trade
liberalisation and tackle the barriers that exist beyond tariffs.
The negotiations that started last week on an EU-US trade
deal have a strong focus on these so called “behind the border
barriers”. Because of this they have the potential to deliver
real benefits to the rest of the world on top of those reaped by
the EU and US.

Three Barriers to Trade
But we also know that many poor countries are just not
trading enough to generate the growth they need to deliver
the jobs and incomes that will reduce poverty.
In my view there are broadly three reasons for this. They
are reasons which guide the areas which our department
focuses on.
First, the rest of the world often doesn’t let them trade
freely. The UK will continue to lead the charge in ensuring
that EU markets remain open to developing country exports.
We will continue to push for the poorest countries to be
allowed to trade freely. This could be at the EU, at the WTO,

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in the G20. Wherever there is a case to be made for freer,
fairer trade, we will aim to make it.
But we also need others, including the rapidly growing
emerging economies, to go further in opening their own
markets to developing countries. Even with the Doha Round
stalled, there is more that can be done to tackle the subsidies
and other distortions that so often tilt the playing field against
poor producers.
Second, all the market access in the world is no good if
there isn’t an enabling environment for trade and investment.
This is particularly true if you can’t physically move what
you’re selling to where it’s needed. Poor infrastructure
increases the cost of trading and hits competitiveness hard.
Shipping a car 6,000 miles from China to Tanzania costs
US$4,000 (around £2,650). Getting it the 600 miles from there
to neighbouring Uganda can cost another US$5,000 (around
£3,315).
This is where donors like the UK can play a hugely
important role, in improving this enabling environment. During
last month’s Group of Eight (G8) meetings, Donald Kaberuka,
President of the African Development Bank, told us that the
best thing we can do with our aid is to help developing countries
to trade.
That is exactly what Britain is doing. Today I can announce
£27.8mn for a TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) programme
in Kenya. This funding will drastically cut the time taken to
move goods between the port of Mombasa and the Ugandan
capital of Kampala. British support will go towards
modernising the port, which is the entry point for millions of
tonnes of cargo bound for Kenya’s landlocked neighbours.
In Uganda, I have agreed nearly £30mn for TMEA to
upgrade a key road linking Uganda and Rwanda. We will also
improve the customs facilities at an increasingly busy border
crossing with South Sudan. Our investment will reduce delays

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and help to increase Uganda’s exports by more than £300mn
by 2017 (around £200mn).
The return on investment of these projects can be huge.
We know that improving the Mombasa port, for example,
will not only help to increase inward investment but also
outward investment, as it improves the container shipping
business model in those regions.
We know that infrastructure is only part of the problem.
We also need a regulatory structure that can help investment.
A DFID-funded study put red tape up there with infrastructure
as one of the biggest barriers to investment in Africa. Shoprite,
the biggest retailer in Southern Africa, spends US$20,000 a
week (around £13,000) just on import permits to ship goods
from South Africa to Zambia, its next door neighbour.
Just as we are taking the scissors to red tape here in the
UK, so we are starting to look at how we can reduce
unnecessary burdens on business abroad.
Today I can announce that we will provide £7mn to support
the work of the International Trade Centre (ITC). This will
be used to collect and share data on the impact of permits,
regulations and bureaucracy in developing countries. The ITC
will then bring businesses and governments together to unpick
and, over time, dismantle these unnecessary barriers. We need
to set the private sector free to create the jobs and incomes
that the world’s poor desperately need.

Global Value Chains
The third reason why many countries may not be reaping
the benefits of trade is that they may not be serving the value
chains that form such an important part of the modern global
economy. One of the most striking features of trade in the
21st century is how integrated it is, with global value chains
stretching across the world.

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Martin Wolf has already pointed out the central role played
by multinational enterprises in the current global trading
system. Some 60 per cent of trade takes place within supply
chains, driven by multinational companies. Around half of that
is within these same firms.
Look at Britain. We know from our own experience that
you don’t need to produce aeroplanes to be an important player
in the aerospace sector. We’re good at high-tech engines, so
we specialise.
We need to make sure we are looking innovatively at how
to get developing countries into these supply chains.
Of course, the link that many developing countries have
right now to global value chains is through the supply of
foodstuffs or other commodities.
Take Kenya. Look at a typical supermarket shelf in Britain
and you’ll find fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables all stamped
with the label ‘Made in Kenya’. The horticulture and agribusiness sectors have created jobs for four and a half million
people in the country – over 10 per cent of the population.
The government will soon be setting out our agri-tech
strategy. International development will play an important role
in this strategy.
There is increasing evidence that developing country firms
in global value chains employ more workers, pay higher wages,
and hire a larger share of female workers than those operating
outside of those chains. Producing for multinational firms
boosts standards and encourages developing countries to invest
in skills and working conditions.
Not only does it create more jobs, it creates better jobs.
Our work in improving access to these value chains needs
to sit alongside the other work we are doing to improve the
enabling environment in the developing world, such as
improving access to liquidity and capital for businesses.

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Within value chains British firms are playing a major role.
Earlier this month I met some of this country’s biggest retailers
to discuss how they can improve their supply chains,
particularly in the garment sector. Last week I’m sure many
of you are aware that they followed this with a historic
agreement to inspect the factories they use and to play their
role in making sure that value chains are not just good for jobs
and prosperity, but that they are responsible.
They are really clear that improving the conditions and skills
of their workers is becoming an increasingly vital part of the
competitive marketplace they operate in. People often overuse
the phrase ‘win-win’, but this is a win for consumers, a win
for business and a win for prosperity and jobs in the developing
world.
British businesses are investing in the quality of life of their
workers. This is not to improve their image or to claim tax
deductions; they are doing this in the interests of long term
profitability.

Conclusion
Making sure we are advocates for freer trade, ensuring we
are improving the enabling environment for business to invest
and trade and helping developing countries to plug into global
value chains.
All this would be good for the world’s poor and good for
Britain.
I think the role of the Consumer Unity & Trust Society
over the next 30 years will be invaluable in achieving all this.

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13
Whither the International
Trading System
Jagdish Bhagwati
Professor, Columbia University

I

n mid-1990s, Pradeep and CUTS were ostracised as much
as people like me and others who started talking about trade
liberalisation as one of the most important components of a
new policy framework which would lead to greater growth
and pull people into gainful employment, and would generate
revenue which, in turn, could be spent on healthcare,
education, etc. giving a double dividend and so on. For an
NGO to be able to say such things at that time needed real
courage.
Trade – basically the multilateral trading system –
unfortunately is on ice or in an intensive care unit whichever
way one prefers to describe. The Doha Round is in trouble. If
one wants to put an epitaph on it, just say it is dead. I am one
of the few people who feel that the US leadership, or really
the lack of it, was at the heart of the problem when Washington
said: it would not deal unless it gets much more Doha
negotiations, which may be called ‘Doha Heavy’ meaning more

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things to be added and to be negotiated by way of concessions
by other countries that would take many more years.
I am a supporter of President Obama; Mr. Obama, the
democrat. But I was disappointed because I think statesmen
have to rise above politics. This does not mean that they do
not have to pay attention to politics. But they still have to go a
little step beyond, redefine what needs to be done, offer
alternative, and try and bring them in. But he surrendered to
the lobbyists, particularly business lobbyists, which said there
is not enough. So, ‘Doha Heavy’ was on which the US puts its
stakes on and then there is ‘Doha Light’ which is being
negotiated.
One can add them up and it was no mean performance but
we sank it. Now we are trying to save it in a way we tried to
put a saving face on the Cancun on environment where nothing
really happened but we declared victory more or less to keep
it going. This is why we are into a very limited set of things
like trade facilitation. I call it ‘Doha:, Decaf and Light’, which
means mainly coloured water. I think we will see that happen
in Bali. I mean we have to put a kind of a brave face and get it
out of the way. I feel when the history of the Doha Round
will be written the lack of leadership on the part of Washington
will be underlined as a major factor. It may not be the major
factor which depends on assessment of different players not
being able to do things to bring about a negotiated deal. Now
that multilateral trade negotiations are more or less crippled,
I doubt if anybody will be able to revive something like a ‘New
Doha’.
In the mean time we have delivered another blow to the
multilateral trading system by going at the same time into
regional agreements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and
the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The point is these are proliferating in a very big way and are
the refrain of many of the economists. It is worrisome to say

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what they will do to the multilateral trading system under the
World Trade Organisation.
As a result, in the US the lobby-intensive system of
government has made the lobbies active again and they want
to negotiate the TPP first with smaller (relative to the US)
countries saying that we will have an agreement for the 21st
century with a whole bunch of side conditions which have
very little to do with trade liberalisation. Unfortunately we
even managed to make it secretive by not bringing in NGOs
as a part of the transparency process. Let me call them ‘tradeunrelated issues’. Everything in some sense is related to trade.
If I sneeze and go and buy a medicine it could have come from
somewhere in Switzerland. I have affected trade.
But in a substantive way trade does not belong to say labour
standards. If one puts all these things in the two big countries
in Asia which are not going to be able to play this game with
the US because India does not pull out the finger nails of trade
union leaders and it is a democratic country. China cannot do
the same to labour unions. The intellectual property
protections, if one pitches for it at the highest level, confusing
maximo with optimo, then some other countries are going to
object to that. Such so-called side conditions will be a problem
in adding more members into these mega regional agreements,
particularly India and China. As a result, there will be
fragmentation in the international trading system. How will
India and China develop in such a scenario?
The point is this is not the kind of model that one should
follow: about turning bilateral/regional trade agreements into
multilateral agreements and this is something to worry. My
solution for that is very simple which is to just say that any
new country can join provided it makes trade concessions,
but it does not have to sign on to all these side conditions. If
someone wants to, that is their affair. That would enable us
to bring in countries which do not want to have all these things

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which are dictated by the Washington lobbies. That would
lead to open regionalism making it easier for people to join
mega regional trade agreements. This depends on if the US
administration stands up to various lobbies.
Let me use an analogy. I want to join a golf club I guess I
have to know how to play golf. It does not make much sense
otherwise, but if you say I have to go to church on Sunday and
sing Madrigals with the rest of the members, that does not
make sense. In the same way I think we ought to change the
membership rules of mega regional agreements such as the
Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and that should be strictly
trade-related. For example, if Japan comes in then it must
liberalise agriculture trade as that is trade-related.
The Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
agreement is a very different thing. Right now the US cannot
impose nor can the European Union impose. That raises a
variety of other issues on how fast it will be negotiated. My
only worry is if two of them combine which they will and if it
works it will be setting rules of all kinds leaving out
consultations with third parties. India or China or African
and other countries will look at it and say here is a duopoly
turning into a monopoly and that is going to determine rules
for me without my consultation in the way it would happen in
the WTO. This is the thing which should be worried about
but there is going to be lots of problems of all kinds and it will
move slowly. However, the underlying point is it is a very
different problem from the TPP.
In such a scenario, what should the new Director General
of the WTO do? The WTO is a three-legged stool: one is
multilateral trade negotiations; second is rule making like on
subsidies, anti-dumping etc.; and the third is dispute settlement.
If one breaks the first leg what does it do to the other two legs
and that is the way the new Director General should think
about it. If rule-making is left to, say the Trans-Atlantic or

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even Trans-Pacific, which is a gigantic duopoly cum monopoly
or just a monopoly because basically US determines what goes
on in TPP, we have to go back and see what we can learn
from the way the WTO is functioning and try and bring in
more multilateral insights.
The WTO dispute settlement mechanism is something
where all the WTO members have, in principle, the right to
be heard. But if the US settles something for you, none of the
others who are members of the WTO can have any standing
there. Therefore, what we should do is to retain the
multilateral trade negotiations aspects of the WTO, and try
and find out what are the practices that we can recommend
to reform it as otherwise international trade is going to
degenerate into a chaotic, hegemonic, power-led kind of a
system. In the long run that would undermine the kind of world
which we thought we were shaping.

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14
Trade and Domestic Reforms:
The Australian Experience
Peter Varghese
Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Australia

P

lacing the interests of the consumer at the centre of policy
thinking is a transformational notion. It goes to the heart
of how our economic policies should be framed. And it is an
important step in ensuring that resources are allocated in a
way which is not only efficient but also meets crucial social
policy objectives. Carrying the banner of consumer interests
is rarely easy because it can cut across many vested interests.
Today I’d like to speak about the links between trade and
domestic reform.
Principally, I’d like to talk about the Australian experience
of the past several decades, during which we’ve made much
progress in opening our economy to the world. We’ve worked
hard to build our competitiveness, and our prosperity. It is of
course a never ending process: always a distant horizon.
Economic reform, improved competitiveness, stronger
innovation, better productivity – these are all crucial to the
prosperity of our nation, as they are to the future of India.

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The Character of a Trading Nation
I’d like to start with Gurcharan Das and Donald Horne an Indian businessman, and an Australian historian.
Das writes in an insightful, highly personal way, of the story
of his country. For him, the modern history of India, since
Independence, can be broken into three distinct phases: the
hope of the post-Independence years, what he calls the lost
generation of the late 1960s to the start of the 1990s, and the
renewed optimism of the post-1991 economic reform period.
Das wrote this of India’s lost generation:
India’s leaders [blamed] foreign trade and foreign
capital … for our poverty, and closed our economy and
pursued a policy of self-sufficiency. In the process, they
wasted an opportunity. They forgot that India had a
centuries-old tradition of trading before the British came,
and that it had once enjoyed enormous prosperity
through exports and imports. For these and other
reasons, we became pessimistic about our ability to
compete in the world economy and regain our historic
pre-eminence as a great trading nation. We closed our
doors. And our share of world trade declined from 2.4
per cent in 1947 to 0.4 per cent in 1990. We learned the
wrong lessons from history.1
Donald Horne, too, was critical of what he also thought of
as a lost generation in Australia’s history: then and now a
controversial assessment.
Horne, writing in the 1960s, was a celebrated Australian
journalist, social commentator and historian, most famous for
coining the label “The Lucky Country” to describe the
Australia of the 1960s.
It’s a catching description. Horne meant it ironically but a
generation of Australians has taken it literally.

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Australia is at Many Levels a Lucky Country
We are blessed with natural resources. We have a beautiful
climate, a wonderfully clean environment. We have a stable,
democratic system of government. We’re miles from the
conflicts of the world. We are prosperous - well-off, by the
standards of almost any country.
But Horne saw the Australia of the 1960s as poorly run.
He thought we were trading on our luck - our unearned natural
resources, but also the luck of our historical origins: “British
habits” which Horne claimed we had never earned.
Two countries and in different ways, arguably two lost
generations.
And it is the place of trade and industry policy in each of
our histories that I think is interesting to analyse – not usually
seen as fundamental or defining – but perhaps incorrectly so.
I think for most people, trade, or international trade, at
least, is something that happens somewhere else. It is not
something that has a lot to do with their own life experience,
unless they happen to work themselves as exporters or
importers. That is changing with the ability to buy and sell
goods and services on the internet; but still, I think, as
consumers, we tend to think of that as shopping, rather than
trading.
And I suspect industry policy is an even more opaque idea.
Industry is probably seen, domestically, principally as a
generator of jobs, maybe also as a source of government
revenue, but not much more. Its capacity to shape the sort of
economy a nation has – and therefore its capacity to shape the
sort of people we are and the lives we lead – is probably not
considered too often.
The reality is that you can change a country when you
change its industry and trade policy. And Australia’s trade
and industry policy changed twice – by which I mean, changed
180 degrees twice – during the course of the 20th century.

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Australia as a Trading Nation
We started off, as a newly-forged nation in 1901, a relatively
open, high-trading economy. The world was then, in the period
before the First World War, in what we now understand as
the first phase of globalisation – a colonial era during which
global trade rose to historic volumes, shaped along the contours
of empire.
Unsurprisingly, for a relatively small economy at one end
of the world, Australia was a particularly high-trading country.
We had the challenge of small domestic markets spread across
a vast, largely unpopulated country.
Unlike places like the US, we were not in 1901 defined so
much by a distinctive national character, or by choices we
had made during war or revolution, but by the products we
exported: wool, wheat, gold, and so on.
As three former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(DFAT) colleagues of mine set out in a recent book launched
by the Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb, for
the first few decades after Federation in 1901, we were
enthusiastic traders.
Minerals accounted for close to a quarter of our exports at
Federation. We had high levels of foreign investment. In the
early 1930s, the level of foreign investment in Australia was
160 per cent of GDP. We were successful – we had among
the highest per capita GDP in the world, and the Australian
standard of living stood out.2

Retreat to Protectionism
But then we changed tack on industry and trade policy.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, Australia became a highlyprotected economy. One which sheltered our manufacturing
industries, hiding our domestic sectors from international
competition.

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Across perhaps the most challenging period in world
economics and history in a century – the middle of the 20th
century, with Depression, War and recovery – the overall
objective of our trade and industry policy was job-creation
and security, particularly in the manufacturing sector. We
argued that without protection, Australia’s small domestic
market, high wages and infant industries, Australian
manufacturing would not be viable.
As Trade Minister McEwan put it in 1965: “Australian
industrialisation has not yet reached the stage where our
industries can compete on a free-trade basis.”
In 1921, at the start of the period of protectionism, we
created the Tariff Board – a body designed to consider the
claims of industries wanting protection from the global
marketplace.
In “The Lucky Country”, Horne wrote this about
protectionism and the Tariff Board in withering terms:
“[The Tariff Board] was originally intended to protect
young and inexperienced businesses but now everyone
hops in for his cut. Once protection is dished out it
usually stays. In the absence of any government plan for
sustaining unemployed men over a retraining period or
in assisting diversification, the political risks in allowing
an inefficient industry to collapse are too great.”3
For several decades, Australia was trapped in this feedback
loop of protectionism.
While it’s true that protection might allow infant industries
to begin, a protected industry also generates its own lobby
groups and mutual protection societies, creating a perverse
incentive against innovation, improved productivity and the
growth of new sectors.
That political reality came to define Australian society.

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As the 20th century wore on, manufacturing rose, but
Australia turned inwards, away from trade and global markets.
In our period of protection, minerals exports collapsed.
That was, of course, partly to do with the First World War
and Depression, but our high rates of tariff protection was
the other major factor. Investment collapsed - by 1960, foreign
investment in Australia was down to about 23 per cent of
GDP.
Gary Banks, the former head of Australia’s Productivity
Commission has written that for many years, the economic
costs of our period of protectionism were hidden by the success
of our agricultural and mining industries.
“Until the early 1970s, Australia was still managing to ‘ride
on the sheep’s back’,” he wrote in 2005. The terms of trade
favoured our primary commodities, and we had benefited from
the world-wide expansion in demand following the War.
Australians enjoyed close to full employment, with incomes
still higher, on average, than those in most other OECD
countries.
“But (wrote Banks) we were riding for a fall. During the
1970s, the prices we received for our commodity exports
commenced a long decline, while the costs of imports began
to rise. The resulting terms of trade deterioration would, in
turn, expose the underlying problem of Australia’s poor
productivity performance.”4
As the world moved into the second dramatic phase of
globalisation, from the 1970s through till now, Australia could
only lose, if we remained inwardly-focused, uncompetitive,
and out of touch with our time.

Return to the Global Economy
But a second U-turn in Australian trade and industry policy
took place in the decades since the 1970s. It fundamentally
reshaped our economy.

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We moved from being an inward-looking economy to
embracing the rigours and the benefits of globalisation. We
turned our economy from being a parochial, protected shell
and towards a more efficient and a more globally competitive
one.
We carried out a sustained programme of trade
liberalisation and structural reforms.
In 1973, the government slashed tariffs by 25 per cent
across the board, largely as a move that would help increase
imports to contain inflation. Still – it marks, in a sense, the
links between trade and domestic reforms. We started with
trade liberalisation, and trade liberalisation remained a vital
feature of the sustained domestic reform programme of later
decades.
From the 1980s on, we started to make consistent changes
towards becoming a more open and market-driven economy.
We floated the Australian dollar in 1983. Foreign-owned
banks were allowed to compete with our own. We gave the
Reserve Bank control of monetary policy, taking it out of
government hands.
The Economic Statement of May 1988 cut a range of tariffs
and industry assistance. Between the early 1970s and 2000,
effective rates of assistance fell from 35 per cent to 5 per
cent, and they have continued to fall.
Increased competition in our traded goods sector put new
pressures on labour markets and public utilities to lower costs.
Pressure mounted for reform of public institutions. All parts
of our economy needed to become more efficient as they too
were in effect competing in the global economy.
We began deregulating airlines, communications and
transport infrastructure.
From the 1980s on, we began restructuring labour markets.
In the late 1980s we began moving from centralised bargaining
to enterprise bargaining, and later, from the mid-1990s, to

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further decentralisation of wage agreements and the use of
individual contracts.
We increased the use of competitive tendering and
contracting.
In 1995, we introduced the National Competition Policy
reforms – and I know that India has closely modelled its
competition policies on the Australian experience.
Across nearly three decades, we reformed the tax system.
Capital gains tax was introduced in 1985, and the company
tax rate fell progressively over the years through the late 1980s.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in 2000,
with further cuts to income tax rates.
And for a decade from the late 1990s, we engaged in a
sustained package of fiscal reform.
Over three decades, we opened our economy to the world,
and we made ourselves, again, a trading nation. The ratio of
trade to GDP increased from 25 per cent to 37 per cent over
the years from 1970 to 2004.
We’ve argued for greater economic transparency and
integration across our region — from the inception of AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), through the conclusion
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (FTA), and
now the negotiation of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP).
As well, we’ve consistently pushed for more foreign
investment. Australia was largely built on foreign capital - that
was true at the time of the First Fleet, and true throughout the
20 th century, as British, American, and later Japanese
investment fuelled the development and expansion of some of
our most important industries.
Investment is an important part of our broader trade
liberalisation agenda. We have used our growing network of

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comprehensive FTAs to improve Australia’s attractiveness to
foreign investors, as well as to seek greater access and
protections for Australian investors abroad.
Our comprehensive agreements with New Zealand, the US,
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Chile, the ASEAN nations –
and most recently Korea – have helped to strengthen twoway investment flows with each of these trading partners.
This is also the approach we are taking in our current
negotiations with other economic partners, like China, Japan,
Indonesia and India. All of these efforts are aimed at positioning
Australia at the leading edge of international economic reform.
Today, with an economy more exposed to global investment
and competition, we are again one of the most prosperous
people on Earth.
Our economy is the 12th largest in the world, even though
our population size would put us somewhere closer to the
middle of global rankings. We have enjoyed 22 years without
a recession – even through the 1997-98 East Asian Financial
Crisis and the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis.
None of this is to diminish the challenges we still face and
which are at the centre of the Abbott government’s economic
policies: challenges of fiscal consolidation, investment
promotion, stronger innovation and better productivity.
In all of this we need to play to our strengths, rather than
trying to shore-up our weaknesses. Mining and agriculture
have of course a key role in this century of food and water
security. But we also need to build a diverse, resilient economy
with a range of strengths in services like education, health,
finance and IT – all pivotal industries of the future.

Explaining the Change of Heart
How and why did we change? There are several reasons,
but the first – and most fundamental – is that we recognised
that we had to change.

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The challenge of having a relatively small market has never
left us – if we hadn’t grabbed hold of a re-globalising world
economy, it would have left us behind.
Australia’s GDP per capita ranked 5th in the world in 1950.
Over the next three decades our ranking fell and we ranked
14th in 1983. While the need to make a change was clear, it
still needed a positive decision at government level to effect
that change. We would certainly not be in the position we are
today, had we not shifted course on industry and trade policy
from the 1980s to now.
A second reason that we were able to change was, in a
sense, institutional and methodological. Over the period of
reform, Australian governments, by and large, took an
evidence-based approach to driving reform.
Strong evidence-based policy debate makes a critical
difference. If the public understands the costs of doing nothing,
and the benefits for the wider economy of doing something –
it is possible to carry the debate forward.
Ironically the institutional beginning of our shift towards
greater openness began at the heart of the architect of so much
of our protection. As Gary Banks has written, from the 1960s
on, the Tariff Board – the 1920s-era institution that essentially
spent several decades deciding how much support to give
Australia’s protected industries – began to re-examine the costs
of the long-standing practices of protection. It beefed up its
analytical capability, and began publishing much more
transparent real data on the costs of protection.
From the early 1970s, the Tariff Board morphed into the
Industries Assistance Commission, the Industry Commission,
and from 1998, the Productivity Commission.
Along the way, it became an organisation with a mission
diametrically opposed to that of the old Tariff Board. The
Productivity Commission now extends its work across all

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sectors of the economy – including in social, environmental
and economic areas.
The work of the Commission has been crucial in helping
demonstrate, and make the case for, reform of tariffs and other
structural changes. Using evidence-based argument has been
particularly powerful in agitating for change. Against the old
arguments about loss of jobs or decline of communities in the
face of the potential closure of a specific industry, the
Commission has provided governments and the public with
well-researched advice on costs and benefits – both the costs
of reform, but also the costs of doing nothing, or perpetuating
the status quo.
The third ingredient for change was strong political
leadership. This was not always bipartisan but during crucial
periods, especially from the mid-80s through to the mid-90s,
it did attract the support of both sides of politics. And this no
doubt made the politics of economic reform easier.

The Links Between Trade and Domestic Reforms the Australian Experience
Essentially, what Australia’s last few decades show is that
trade and domestic reform are intrinsically linked.
Australia’s trade agenda – including our multilateral,
regional and bilateral efforts – is essentially about continuing
reform in the Australian economy, and pursuing similar reform
in our trading partners.
I think it’s fair to say that there is a widespread perception
that trade liberalisation should only be pursued if it is
reciprocated by trading partners.
While the Australian experience confirms the economics
of trade liberalisation – that is, that the biggest benefits go to
the liberalising country – the political reality for governments
is that it helps to send that message if they can point to market

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opening and reform by our trading partners through trade
negotiations.
While we’ve been active participants in the GATT and
subsequently the WTO since the post-war period, our own
approach has therefore been one that brings unilateral reform
together with liberalisation by way of international negotiation.
In many cases, our unilateral reforms have been ahead of
the multilateral trade effort – which is not to say that such
reforms cannot, and have not, been used as “credits” in
multilateral negotiations.
Our experience shows that liberalising one part of the
economy can put pressure to liberalise other parts of the
economy. And that to get the full benefits of trade
liberalisation, one may need to reform other parts of the
economy.
But we’ve also understood that broader economic reform
would be good for Australia and good for the region.
I should say something about innovation, as well, because I
don’t want to leave you with the impression that growth in
our economy is driven by government. The private sector, of
course, is the major engine of our growth – and the private
sector is also a driver for innovation in our national economy.
Trade and Investment Minister Robb said this recently about
innovation:
“For many people, innovation is something intangible;
something very talented and bright people do. Yet
innovation is simply a method, a new idea, a new
product, a better process or a solution – it is within the
power of everyone to innovate. This is something
enlightened companies and enterprises strive to capture.
Empowering people on the shop floor can ignite truly
outstanding innovation and serious productivity gains.5

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The OECD estimates that a 1 per cent rise in business R&D
can increase multifactor productivity by 0.1 per cent – so the
gains from innovation are significant.

Forward Agenda
With that perspective, let me set out Australia’s current
priorities in trade policy, because the work we are doing now
will help us deliver an even more open and competitive
economy in coming decades.
We see global negotiations through the WTO as important
to that effort.
The best liberalisation is liberalisation that opens the
greatest number of markets for goods, services and investment,
that drives globalisation furthest, and removes distortions from
the global economy.
But we recognise that we have to be pragmatic about how
we can best achieve reform.
When the WTO Doha Round was launched in 2001, there
were high hopes for an ambitious outcome.
We came close to concluding the round in 2008, and we
harvested a subset of the negotiating agenda in December
2013, but a full, comprehensive agreement eludes us.
So we have kept ourselves open to alternative paths to
progress.
Our G20 presidency in 2014 is a particular opportunity to
advance Australia’s trade policy priorities.
We intend to focus on both the importance of domestic
reform to drive economic openness as well as the contribution
the G20 can make to strengthen the global trading system.
A key element of our trade agenda is for each G20 country
to identify actions they can take at home to increase trade
flows and make it easier for business to trade.

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These actions would form part of country-specific,
comprehensive growth strategies (along with investment/
infrastructure and employment), to be presented to the
Brisbane summit.
The G20 also needs to provide strong support to the WTO.
And we want to reinforce G20 Leaders’ support for open
markets and the WTO and to ensure bilateral and regional
trade agreements strengthen global trade.
Bilaterally, we recently concluded an FTA with Korea, one
of our most important trading partners. We are negotiating
FTAs with China, Japan and Indonesia. With India, we are
working on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation
Agreement (CECA).
We are also engaged in sector-specific negotiations, and
regional approaches.
Let me mention four specific initiatives.
First, the TPP. As its name implies, the TPP is a major
regional trade negotiation, aimed at liberalising trade and
investment across the Pacific.
The government wants the TPP to be a vehicle through
which we significantly improve market access around the
region – something that makes a commercial difference for
our business sector.
It will promote trade liberalisation throughout the region
and advance the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
vision of an economically integrated Asia-Pacific community.
It will cover more policy areas than any of our existing
FTAs.
Second, Australia, along with India, is part of the
negotiations for the RCEP – covering ASEAN’s 10 member
states, and ASEAN’s other FTA partners: China, Japan, Korea
and New Zealand.
RCEP is a significant undertaking.

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Collectively, the participating countries account for almost
half the global population, and 30 per cent of global GDP.
We want an agreement that is comprehensive, covering
goods, services, investment and other issues. RCEP will build
on ASEAN’s existing FTAs, and will be inclusive – leaving the
door open for other countries to join after negotiations have
concluded.
Negotiating momentum will need to be maintained if RCEP
is to be concluded by the end of 2015 – and if we are to secure
agreement from our RCEP partners to a deal that delivers a
credible and commercially meaningful agreement that
contributes to regional economic integration.
Third, we are negotiating in sector-specific arrangements,
like in services.
Services is an area where there has been dramatic economic
reform in recent years in many countries because of the huge
role services now play in many domestic economies, and
Australia is no exception.
Services is one of the least developed areas of international
trade reflected in a low level of international commitments in
trade agreements. Given the proportion of our economy that
relies on services – about 70 per cent – Australia has a strong
interest in improving global services trade reform, which
currently represents less than 20 per cent of our exports.
Hence Australia’s joint leadership of the 23-party Trade in
Services Agreement negotiations in Geneva- the TiSA – a
services only agreement.
We are also using trade negotiations to reduce behind-theborder regulatory barriers for our services providers – including
in professional services – to facilitate more open trade.
For example, the decision to liberalise our professional
services sector has helped grow a US$4bn export industry for
Australia.

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And fourth, we are involved in procedural reforms that
make it easier for trade to flow across our borders.
One example of that is the trade facilitation agreement
struck in December at the WTO meeting in Bali. That
agreement will improve customs procedures, reduce the
number of forms that need to be filled out during border
movements, allow for electronic reporting and streamlined
reporting timeframes. It represents the first multilateral
agreement achieved under the WTO.
Implementation of the agreement within Australia will
complement domestic reforms that are already being
considered by the Australian Customs and Border Protection
Service.
For example, the Trusted Trader Programme aims to
provide enhanced border clearance privileges for a range of
trusted entities engaged in the import and export of goods.

India
Before concluding let me say a few words about India which
is also going through a significant period of change, even if
some of India’s partners would like to see the pace of that
change quicken.
Australia’s ability to trade with and invest in India will
inevitably be driven in part by decisions the Indian government
makes on economic reform and financial opening.
Businesses would know only too well that India’s economy
has undergone a protracted slowdown since March 2011,
marked by a slump in investment and industrial output.
GDP growth fell to 4.4 per cent in 2012-13. It is forecast
to remain somewhere in the 4.5 to 5.5 per cent range over
2013-14 and many businesses are adopting a ‘wait and see’
approach in the lead-up to national elections due later in 2014.

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Finance Minister Chidambaram and RBI Governor Rajan
have taken positive steps to address key concerns, including
curbing the fiscal and current account deficits and shoring up
capital flows.
The short term outlook may be below par but India’s strong
medium-term fundamentals give cause for more optimism.
Favourable demographics, prevailing trends of urbanisation
and industrialisation, and room for productivity gains should
enable India’s economy to achieve growth outcomes of 6-7
per cent over the next 20 years or more.
Reaching a high growth trajectory will depend on India
getting its domestic policy settings right and investing in
infrastructure, skills and institutions.
Australia is well placed to partner with India on both the
infrastructure and skills agenda and to share lessons learnt on
policy reform. Our key energy exports also provide the
necessary drivers for further economic development in India,
and we are committed to a long-term, broad based energy
supply relationship.
Encouragingly, there are signs that India’s federal system
is working to show that good policy can also be good politics,
as more dynamic states compete to create a more favourable
environment for private and foreign investment.
Efforts by these states to cut through regulation and
bureaucracy, address infrastructure bottlenecks, introduce tax
incentives, and provide easy access to land and power are
leading to above-average growth in some states.

Conclusion
Let me conclude with these observations. Domestic industry
policy and trade liberalisation are two sides of the reform coin.
These are, often, technical economic discussions.

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But if they seem arcane from the outside, they are not
irrelevant to the success of our national life – far from it.
Indeed, they are, in large part, determinative of the sort of
society we live in, and the role our society can play in the
wider world. The same processes are at play on a regional
level, too.
If domestic trade liberalisation and industry policy reform
shape the kind of successful, open nation we aspire to be,
then regional economic integration and liberalising reform will
shape a more successful, open region in the same way. Our
liberalisation agenda will have long-lasting benefits in helping
realise the regional and global society we would like to see.
Reform is a permanent challenge, but for me, the ingredients
for successful reform remain the same: recognising the need
to adapt; policy that is anchored in clear evidence; and a
political leadership willing to make the case for change.

Endnotes
1

Gurcharan Das, “India Unbound – From Independence to the Global
Information Age”, pp. 68

2

Mike Adams, Nicolas Brown and Ron Wickes, “Trading Nation”, pp
60-61

3

Donald Horne, “The Lucky Country”, pp 134

4

Gary Banks, “Structural Reform Australia-Style: Lessons for
Others?”, 2005, pp 3

5

Speech – “Innovation and the digital economy”, San Francisco, 15
January 2014

15
India’s Export Competitiveness,
Prospects & Challenges:
The Role of Trade Policy
Rajeev Kher
Commerce Secretary, India

I

t is indeed a pleasure for me to be here talking on a subject
which has become very relevant these days particularly in
the context that we are at the anvil of preparing a new foreign
trade policy and therefore it becomes important that there is
an adequate amount of mental regurgitation on the subject.
And it is also important because we are talking about exports,
which is a significant part of economic policy and it is
increasingly becoming more significant over the last few years.
This is an opportunity of getting inputs and feedback from a
gathering which is very well aware of the issue.
In the last few years, exports or for that matter international
trade, in the context of India has played a very significant role
in India’s economic development. Today we are trading, if
you include services as well, beyond a trillion dollars (imports
of about US$490bn; exports of about US$310bn; about
US$148bn of services exports and US$90bn of services
imports). So it is about a trillion that we trade from and into

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India. That makes a very significant part of our receipts and
outgoes. It is, therefore, important that the export or
international trade policy is contextualised rather than being
simply an agglomeration of instruments as has been traditionally
perceived.
Exports are no more a function of surpluses as they used
to be may be about ten years ago. They are essentially well
thought out strategised activities with companies and firms
exclusively involved in manufacturing and/or rendering services
for exports. Exports have become an inherent part of preparing
for a successful, sustainable and vibrant economic policy. In
the context of India, import plays an equally significant role
because if you analyse the import figures you will soon
recognise that more than about 60 per cent of imports actually
get into manufacturing. There are not only essential imports,
such as, Petroleum but also whole lot of intermediates and
raw materials which constitute our import basket.
Having recognised that imports are very important for
India’s manufacturing and exports, the first question that
occurs to my mind is to what extent should we monitor these
imports and to what extent should we substitute these? This
is a big manufacturing challenge before us. Imports have been
recognised to constitute a significant part of our manufacturing
policy till we are able to substitute or till we are able to find
alternatives or till we are able to produce domestically.
We have not had a significant role to play in creation of
value chains and in a sense we seem to have lost the bus several
years ago. But it is increasingly being felt that this is perhaps,
though late, an important time to find a toehold in value chains
particularly in regional value chains. Therefore, institutional
engagements which are being pursued by India have a
significant focus on finding toehold on some of these value
chains. But if you look at some of the trade between the regions
of South Asia, you would recognise that they are very well

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constructed value chains where India plays a very significant
role. But out of South Asia we have not had a concerted effort
at being part of these value chains.
In order to become part of these value chains you would
have to look at many other facets of manufacturing and services
which would require a policy push on a different paradigm
than the one which we have been following so far. One of the
areas which I can mention is the whole issue of rules of origin
in our preferential trading. If you want to attain a position on
regional or global value chains you have to significantly take a
position on diluting your defensive armour around rules of
origin and traditionally we have always looked at
manufacturing as a very defensive pursuit and, therefore, this
whole issue of rules of origin has not been adequately
addressed. We need to necessarily dilute rules of origin.
Dilution of rules of origin or product specific regulations has
to be looked at in the context of country’s strength and
weaknesses.
That kind of amalgam has not necessarily happened.
Because traditionally taking the defensive approach in the pre1991 we have always looked at opening up in a stance where
we have tried to protect industries or segments where we
thought we were extremely sensitive. We need to take a
different approach.
Now let me come back to the foreign trade policy and how
export competitiveness needs to be addressed not necessarily
through instruments alone but in a broader context. First of
all, I think we need to recognise that exports are a necessary
ingredient of our economic policy. Once you recognise that, it
becomes imperative that the whole dimension of exports needs
to be mainstreamed in the governance process itself.
Most of the departments, excluding Department of
Commerce and Information Technology, are just not geared
for exports. It is important that we mainstream the concept

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of exports in the governance process. This clearly means that
we need to work on an agenda where, particularly,
departments relating to merchandise recognise that they
produce not only for the domestic market but also for the
global market, which means we are talking of scales and that
is perhaps one single aspect of our manufacturing policy which
requires the greatest attention. Because we are producing on
small scales and consequently paying greater fixed costs and
not being able to play prices are perhaps the major reason
why we are not internationally competitive in many areas.
We have conducted studies through our FTA partners and
found that in many of the areas we were not exportcompetitive. Competitiveness comes out of two major aspects:
one is the fundamental aspect of the economy’s strength which
gives an inherent competitiveness; the other which comes out
of the front end of competitiveness is the transaction. There
is a need for working on issues of infrastructure, connectivity,
management of ports and so on. Therefore, it is not necessarily
possible to find export competitiveness in a large part of
product segment until we address some of these fundamental
issues. Till that time we need to work on strategy for exports.
The traditional Indian markets have been the EU and the
US. The 2008 crisis clearly gave a signal that over-reliance on
two markets was not safe. And therefore this whole business
of diversification started; diversification both in terms of
destinations and diversification in terms of product segments
and products within segments. After five years we clearly see
a trend in the area of diversification.
You look at Africa where we have a significant rate of
growth in terms of exports. You look at South East Asia and
ASEAN there has been a significant rise in exports to these
territories. So diversification has helped but there is a
significant amount of further diversification required which
means we are talking of territories which are in CIS, East

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Asia, Middle East, West Asia and Latin America. Latin America
is one territory where we have not been able to make the
right kind of impact so far despite the fact that there is a clear
recognition that this territory has a huge amount of promise.
Traditionally, India’s strength has been in textiles, leather,
garments, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals and so on.
Diversification in products can essentially be in two ways:
one is looking at new areas of product segments and this is
clearly visible if you look at textile. Over the last several years
India seems to be losing it competitiveness when it comes to
traditional textiles as there are several other countries, for
example, Bangladesh, Vietnam etc. which have shown a very
promising growth. There is a situation where our traditional
strengths are diluting or diminishing and, therefore, new
segments of products need to be found. And that is where, for
example in textiles, this whole concept of technical textiles is
important. This can be seen in several other product segments
where the markets have played themselves in a manner that
firms are diversifying into new product sub-segments
obviously driven by the effectiveness for those sub-segments.
If you look at pharmaceuticals, traditionally we have been
exporting APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients). Today
the export basket of India on pharmaceuticals contains about
55 per cent of formulations and roughly 45 per cent of active
ingredients. At one point in time we used to export about 60
per cent of APIs but today China has overtaken. Market forces
have themselves played in a manner that this kind of a
diversification has happened.
Now what is important here is that we bring in value into
the diversification. If you look at the engineering products,
traditionally India has been exporting low technology
engineering products. In the current engineering export basket
there has been a significant rise of high technology products

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in the engineering segment and therefore this automatic
diversification into higher value add has happened.
If you look at value addition, ultimately you have to
recognise that if we were to talk about manufacturing at the
low levels of value and we do not have scales then we are
faced with losing propositions because that is where there are
countries like China which will score over us. Our perspective
is that we should be talking about manufacturing and exports
at a higher levels of value and therefore get greater value
addition out of this manufacturing and export. This strategy
needs to be worked on over a long period of time. Unless we
operate on scales, the mass production is unlikely to give us
the benefits. It is also important that we look at issues of
technology, product design, research and development, etc.
Let us take the argument on strategy further. Globally,
protectionism has become more sensitive. With multilateral
trade negotiations, with trade formations restructuring
themselves, what is happening is that countries are becoming
increasingly protective towards those trading partners who
are not within the ambit of their trade relations. New kinds of
enclaves on trade are being constituted. If you look at North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and EUs
agreements with some other trading partners, you clearly
discern that the whole business of enclavisation leading to
some kind of tierisation of relationships and that means that
despite your best efforts you could still be excluded from a
trade transaction. This can happen through two routes, one
being the FTA route which is legitimate, the other way is
through the non-tariff barriers, an area which has been
addressed by the WTO mechanism through Sanitary and
Phyto-sanitary/Technical Barriers to Trade (SPS/TBT)
agreements and import control procedures. But if you go
deeper into trading partners’ regimes you clearly find that there

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is an evolving trend of non-tariff barrier regime, where every
other day there is new notification, particularly, coming from
the developed world.
On the one hand these notifications are arising out of the
multilateral rules framework which is justifiable, but there is
a lot happening outside the multilateral rules framework. One
of the solutions to this issue is to adapt by improving our own
capacities, which is possible in the area of SPS and TBT.
Now let us move on to standards. Standards is one area
which has not been adequately looked by us despite that today
we have about 60,000 standards which are all voluntary in
nature, specifically made available by the BIS. If you look at
mandatory standards they are above 80 or so. This clearly
shows that the focus on standards has not been adequate.
Standards work both ways. Standards can help you in
graduating to a higher value product and standards can also
keep you out of a market. Standards can also come to you as a
protection against imports. What matters is that how our
industries can be adequately equipped to deal with standards
related situations. This is where we have to do a lot of work.
Because we have to operate on the upper ends of the value
chain or at least the higher middle ends of the value chain,
standards will be an inherent part of this strategy. It is also a
sure way of consumer protection. And therefore a greater
attention is required on standards.
While talking about value added exports let us now look at
the issue of branding. A country’s brand essentially brings in
the strength of the specificities that country offers for a product
area. What is important is how the trade policy can help these
brands to achieve what they could in the global or regional
context. The export strategy or policy needs to look at this.
Services sector is a very significant area which has hitherto
been a one trick pony. We have exports of about US$148bn in
services, about 90 per cent of it has come out of IT-based

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services clearly showing there is a huge need for diversification.
This diversification can have two approaches: one could be
an approach of going sector by sector; second could be where
we can piggyback on our strength in IT. The second strategy
is more appropriate because you have more inherent strength
in IT and therefore riding on that strength makes a lot of sense.
But if you want to score in trading services then it is extremely
important that we look at our regulatory structures and that
is where a huge amount of work is required. We have identified
8-9 service areas which we could call as potentially winning
service areas. Some of them are, information technology,
telecom, healthcare, tourism, logistics, professional services,
entertainment services etc.
Having identified these areas what is important is to see
how the relatively archival regulatory structure may not allow
us to unleash our export potential. If we expect to enter into
markets we have to be equally liberal in letting other’s into
our markets. This is an area which requires significant amount
of debate in the country. In a few professional services like
chartered accountancy, legal services and others, clearly we
have huge potential. But if that potential has to be harnessed
there are two actions which will be required. One is to look
at how market access has to be strategised and how will we
respond to consequent flow of market access. And more
importantly what are the regulatory barriers which are coming
in the way and how do we remove those barriers and unleash
the potential. This is an area which requires reforms across
the governance architecture in at least 10-12 departments.
States needs to get mainstreamed into the export objectives.
Exports play an important part in our economic policy, it
makes sense that we also look at incentivisation, or promotion
or encouragement to the states in the context of their
contribution to exports.

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Before I conclude, let me mention a few words on FTAs.
Sometimes an impression is carried that FTAs are inherently
wrong or inherently in the negative interest of the country.
This is a misimpression and this needs to be addressed. What
is important is that FTAs offer an institutional mechanism to
trade. How good or bad it is, will depend upon two factors.
One is what we have negotiated and second is how best we
have utilised it. The second aspect is more important. Does
my industry know that there is an FTA and they can take
advantage of that FTA if they want to be a part of that value
chain? This is an area where a huge amount of work needs to
be done. An analysis has been done by some agency which
shows that the India-Korea FTA has been utilised only about
20 per cent. It means that most of the trade that is happening
between these two countries is happening on MFN basis and
not on preferential trade basis. With just 20 per cent of FTA
there is so much of trade imbalance between the two countries.
So criticising the FTA for that may not be a valid argument. It
is important to see whether there is an inherent
competitiveness between the products which are being traded
on both sides.
India is likely to be adversely affected by mega FTAs such
as the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and, in this
context, successful negotiations of the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in
the Asia-Pacific region can be a potential game changer. RCEP
is an extremely important agreement for India. It will make a
lot of sense if we study the rules architecture in RCEP and
take advantage of it, which might mitigate the damages which
have occurred in the case of bilateral trade agreements.

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IV. Regional
Integration

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16
India’s Economic
Integration with Asia
Salman Khurshid
Minister of External Affairs, India

I

will speak about India’s economic integration with Asia
something that all of you are familiar with. Everyone has
different levels of visionary attitudes and perceptions about
Asia, about our role in Asia and the criticality to integration
within Asia.
That criticality of integration comes in concentric circles.
The closest and the tightest circle, if I may be allowed to say
this, is within the country itself, about the way we approach
the opportunities and challenges that we face. And then, of
course, the larger circle brings in the immediate
neighbourhood, the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) region countries that have either had
important historical links with us or they have been a part of
the common destiny. Hope, we will have shared destiny and
not in the manner in which we shared in the past but in a
different way, as we integrate in terms of economics, politics,
social behaviour, social contact, ideology and the way of life
that brings nations and people together.

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There is then a larger circle which brings in other
neighbours. China, for instance, brings in distant neighbours,
a lot of Central Asia for instance, may be not that distant but
it starts close but goes on to a great distance and then countries
like Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Then on the eastern side, it
includes a lot of the closer countries of Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the largest circle that brings in
ASEAN and now, the Pacific as well. We are already beginning
to talk about Indo-Pacific.
At the end, is the largest circle that encapsulates the Indian
Ocean region, IRAQ region where India is presiding at present,
where we will hand over to Australia, is extremely important
but I think under-estimated and under explored possibilities
that exist in this region. This is the only regional collaboration
and cooperation that is conceptually based on water as against
every other region in the world that is based on land mass.
This is the only region that is based on water in a substantial
way. We do have the Pacific islands and there is cohesiveness
in terms of planning and thinking but in a substantive way this
is a quite unique potential organisational growth area.
These are the concentric circles which examined from any
form and from any direction give a pivotal role to India. A
pivotal role not in terms of necessarily ideology but certainly
in terms of physical attributes. I hope it also means a little
more than physical attributes. There is greater intellectual and
a greater leadership role that we can provide. In SAARC we
do. We do because we have natural advantage over other
SAARC countries and therefore greater responsibility along
with other SAARC countries because of the size, size of
economy, population, etc.
When we speak of all these, for instance, the smallest of all
the SAARC countries, there is no concept of big and small.
We are equals. But obviously in order to be equal, we have to
ensure that we are willing to sacrifice, accommodate and

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willing to give more than what we can take. If you are talking
in economic terms, what you can get from all these is going to
be obviously far less than what you are able to give to them. If
you think we are giving more, we therefore demand more in
one form or other, then the very idea that is the foundation of
SAARC gets demolished or gets undermined or destroyed.
Again a pivotal picture; if you look at the IRAQ region, if
you look at the two rims around India, there is the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) all the way in the Arabian Sea,
Africa beyond that and on the right, if you are looking at India,
all the way to Southeast Asia and then beyond into Australia.
Australia is a very significant important contributor but can’t
be the pivot. South Africa and the East coast of Africa or the
GCC countries are extremely important, rich in many different
ways, culturally, economically, in terms of minerals, oil, gas
but they can’t be the rim. They can’t be the pivot. Pivot has to
be India. Then the additional factors, you want to go to Central
Asia, where is the stepping stone? The stepping stone is India.
You want to travel across the southern parts of the Asian
continents the longest road will have to be in India.
Now it is important to convince India and the people of
India that we have been placed in this remarkable position in
the world and that every time you have been placed in a
remarkable position like this you can expect a great deal from
those who are engaged, associated, dependent, linked with
you but you also have tremendous responsibility to give. So if
you don’t build the road, we won’t have a road running from
west to east. If you don’t provide a launch pad to deal with
Central Asia, of course we won’t have the importance of being
bridged or linked with Central Asia.
Now, of course there are smaller elements in this. Tapi
Pipe Line, for instance, I think is the most substantive forward
looking symbol of India’s Connect Central Asia policy that
connects Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. So

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India is the destination and the source is Turkmenistan but
there is Afghanistan, Pakistan and therefore the pipelines
remain a dream for India. Only if you get Pakistan and
Afghanistan in a position to be able to ensure that the pipeline
brings benefits and goodwill to them and then transmit it into
India can India satisfy to some extent its thirst for energy
because Indian economy is growing.
When you look towards East, for instance, we are
committed to a trilateral Highway between India, Myanmar
and Thailand together with efforts from Myanmar, and
Thailand. But this is only one part of that grand design to have
a grand Asian Highway that will go all the way to Vietnam.
There will be a northern branch that will go up Laos, Cambodia
and a southern branch that will go into Vietnam. Many of
these only need to be linked together. It is not a new project
entirely because many of these are already well equipped roads
that need to be linked together but linking together physically
is the only part of the effort. Linking together conceptually is
the real effort.
To be able to do so now we try to encourage thinking on
how we can link ourselves together intellectually and
emotionally and in ways other than just physical linking through
the ASEAN Car Rally. It was enormously successful but
obviously it’s only something that the very brave can try right
now. Hopefully one day one would be able to drive beyond
India into Pakistan, Afghanistan and then into Iran. If you want
to able to do it, we need a huge super structure of integrated
connectivity, information, science, infrastructure, back-up
infrastructure ability to transit and transfer very quickly to be
able to get special dispensations so that people can travel easily.
You may be SAARC citizens, and therefore you may have an
advantage but you may have a friend who is non-SAARC
citizen travelling with you.

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These are the things on which we need to think out of the
box. Traditional thinking is something that has held us back
and we need to break that. I think we have made two or three
efforts in the last 20 years to break traditional thinking and
we have been told by our leadership to think out of the box. I
think there are many people who are sitting here who have
actually contributed to thinking beyond the box including on
the stage but we do have a sense of recoil and we get back
into that box periodically. We have been habituated. We have
grown up in the box with such degree of comfort and sense of
safety that every time there is a crisis, we run back to the box.
Now, we need a bold person in public life who destroys this
box. So, every time you run back to the box, there is no box to
run back to. We have lot of politicians in our country who are
trying to do this except that they are destroying the wrong
box. So that will be even more traumatic that you run back,
there is a wrong box. The right box is being destroyed and the
wrong box is still there. When you jump back into the wrong
box, you end up being nowhere.
We need to engage with China undoubtedly. If you talk
about integration with Malaysia, then we need to engage with
China. But to engage with China again is a great challenge but
also has great possibilities. In order to engage with China we
need to understand that we must speak to China in a voice
that has strength and not in a meek voice. When I say meek
voice, I am not talking about muscle, I am not talking about
armament, I am talking about effectiveness, confidence, faith
and belief that we have institutions that would be able to meet
the challenges of a strong overdrive in China.
Because China made its move to reform at least a decade
before we did and China has an ambition to spread its wings
and has a thirst and hunger which is not less than ours and it
has got into many places long before we got there.

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Except that when China reaches any place in Africa or in
South East Asia or in the GCC countries for that matter in
Europe, it is my observation and I have a lot of ambassadors
sitting here and I hope they will endorse it, when China arrives
with a big caravan on wheels you find that there are places
with little shoots that remind you of someone from India having
come and planted a seed many centuries ago. Those shoots
just need to be nurtured. China needs to bring in paraphernalia.
India needs only to nurture the shoots that exist in Africa, in
Europe and in South East Asia. But the shoots have withered
over time because large edifices have taken over, many more
events and pre-occupations have dragged the people away.
India also from time to time has become insular and has not
attended to the very shoots, the green shoots that India can
claim to be its own. But those green shoots are there and those
green shoots need to be nurtured. And if you are able to nurture
them I think we will be able to say that we have a different
model of partnership with the world and that includes these
concentric circles.
It is a good thing that China has one kind of model and
India has another. China has one kind of car and India has
another. China has one sort of textile and we have another
and that is what I believe competition is about. It is not about
don’t do this because China is doing it, it is about doing because
China is doing it better. And it is for the world and for us to
ensure that the rules of the game encourage competition and
not discourage competition. It doesn’t serve to say we can’t
do this because China is doing it or Russia is doing it or the
US is doing it, as the US does very much but what we do is
that we should be able to find a different model. US is now
trying to look for another model, we can also look for and
enhance the model what we have tried in the past 20 or 25
years.

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It is important that there is an engagement with China and
I think there cannot be a greater disservice not to India alone
but to Asia and to the world that we do not trust the efforts
that are being made on both sides. Chinese and Indian
leadership need to find a common ground of engagement. And
the common ground of engagement cannot be surrendered to
the aspirations of the other person. But to be sensitive to the
aspirations of the other person, to be cognitive and possibly
accommodative from time to time to the extent that our national
interests permit. I think it is what we need to do. I believe that
this is what I have tried to do in my capacity as Foreign
Minister. To be able to hear carefully what China has to say
and then to speak clearly so that China will understand and I
do believe that our conversation is a very positive and creative.
This conversation is the conversation that will allow for a
larger picture of Asia to emerge where Asia will be willing to
provide prosperity to its own people and competition and
advantage to the rest of the world.
There is no reason why India and China will not be able to
cooperate. Today we are in competition. Today we run in
parallel. Today we run as options, as alternatives but there
will be a day that we will be able to co-operate and there is no
reason why one cannot look into the future and say there will
be a day when we can cooperate. After all we are both very
ancient civilizations. They have a five year plan and we have a
five year plan. There is no reason to believe that civilizations
that run into millions of years are not going to be able to do
things together in five years. We are ancient civilisations and
we will perhaps have a long view of our destination but our
destination and destiny must combine. Till that happens, people
will want to play games. Somebody would say we are close to
China; therefore we must not do this with India. Somebody
will say we are close to India therefore we must not do this
with China. I think we should repudiate and reject it. There is

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no question of being against somebody because you happen to
be for somebody.
Every time, anyone has suggested that India becomes a
partner in enterprise to surround China we said no. We may
have differences with China but we will not be party to a
larger enterprise to surround China and to contain China or
curtail China because we believe in free, fair, transparent and
open competition and if we lose competition, so be it, we lose
in the Olympics too. We try harder, we lose somewhere else.
We try harder. We must not accept defeat easily but we must
not question somebody else’s victory as well. If somebody
performs better than us we must accept and we must learn. I
think that there is much to learn from China and I think there
is much to teach to China. And this two-way process is what
I believe, we must encourage, we must fortify and we must
consolidate because the integration of Asia and India,
integration with Asia, in truth is not possible and not
sustainable without the larger picture of Asia which includes
China and India being worked out.
Now over the ages there are some interesting things that
you need to look at. Turkey is incidentally in Asia as well as in
Europe. You can stand on a part of Turkish territory, and say
I am in Asia and when you cross to another place 10 minutes
later and stand on a piece of Turkish territory, you can say
that I am in Europe. Of course in terms of policy and
unifications and engagement with Europe, Turkey has a big
question. They don’t know how to describe themselves. Should
they describe themselves as Europeans or Asians? If you want
to be in the European Union you will have to be European.
But if you want to be participating in SAARC meeting, you
will have to say you are Asian. Now I think every rule has an
exception and I am not sure about what the great thinkers
within SAARC or the Europeans Union will finally arrive at.
But I think every rule has an exception and it is an interesting

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exception. The interesting exception is that it has elements
that actually unite us with Europe. And those elements are in
common with us. There is a great commonality between
Turkey and India.
When I was in Turkey recently, I said only one thing to
them politely. I said, Turkey always imagines an ancient
relationship with India but its recent generations seem to
assume that the ancient relationship was with a part of India
which is today Pakistan. Interestingly Pakistan or what is part
of Pakistan today, was largely a passage to India. It was till the
caravans or the people coming in from Afghanistan, or Central
Asia or Turkey, would pass through Sind and through Punjab
but they wouldn’t rest till they got to Delhi or beyond Delhi
to Agra. We are here in Delhi though CUTS is headquartered
in Jaipur. Delhi is preferred when anyone wants to speak to
India now as earlier.
There are others as well. Bangladesh has got its own vibrant
share, Pakistan has its own substantive share but I think the
core succession has come to us, has come to India. And in
many ways. I don’t want to go in describing how incredible
India is but not simply in the fact that Taj Mahal is here, Red
Fort is here, the great Mughal places are here, not only because
of syncretic that the Mughals brought to this country but many
other reasons. I believe Turkey and that region also have to
see the real successors to syncretic culture that developed in
the medieval ages in India and during the Mughal period
basically has come to our side and our share. This is why it is
important for people in Turkey to understand us. Hungary
understands us, other parts of Europe understand us, Norway
understands us, All of Europe understands us. Turkey has
started to understand us and I think Turkey has begun to rediscover us. South East Asia realises the importance of India.
I am saying all these not because it makes India more
important than anybody else. I am saying this because I honestly

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and genuinely believe that we have been placed intellectually,
philosophically, historically and physically in a very major
seminal role for the future of Asia and I do think that this is a
role that we have to share in a dominant way with China but
it is the role we also have to share with lot of other contributing
countries, nationalities and societies that form Europe today
or engage with Europe today. I do believe that the greater
example we give to the world and our region, the more
successful we will be seen as having contributed and fulfilled
our destiny and our responsibility to Asia.
I think it is a critical point and sadly we first got so excited
about our own growth rates. We have got so excited about
reforming our country and then suddenly so depressed by the
disappointment that we could not keep pace. You rise very
fast you get to a plateau and till you get to the next rise and to
the next plateau, it takes time. You should have faith and
confidence. You can’t give up simply because day turns to
night. You know that after night there will be a dawn again.
And if you have seen dawn before then you have to be
determined to wait for the dawn to come and not to give up
because all around you there is darkness or twilight. We’ve
never had darkness fortunately. We’ve had very little of twilight
from time to time but there is nothing that makes life more
beautiful than to know that there is a certain dawn tomorrow.

17
Regional Integration and
Sustainable Development in the
East African Community
Richard Sezibera
Ambassador, Secretary General, East African Community

I

will share some thought with you on Regional Integration
for Sustainable Development in the East African Community
Region.
I guess we need to ask the fundamental questions first. Why
should Africa integrate? After all many of our countries have
had almost 50 years of independence, with all the trappings
that Sovereignty brings. We have the flags, the anthems, the
Governance structures and the International recognition that
many fought for, and others have yearned for decades with no
success.
Many of the countries have navigated, albeit with some
difficulty, the very difficult and sometimes competing
challenges of nationhood, nationality, citizenship and State
building. This decade has seen the rise of a new Africa. One
that is increasingly dynamic, vibrant, and sure of its destiny.

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It is a Continent that continues to find and redefine its
narrative, going beyond the myths and narratives bequeathed
by others. Sometimes successfully, other times not. I am glad
that East Africa is composed of States that have redefined
themselves, and are building home-grown narratives of national
development, for some, in the aftermath of traumatic National
events that provided them with a near tabula rasa.
It also happens to be an Africa, in my opinion, with an
unfinished agenda, of integrating and mobilising her people to
fully achieve their agenda.
But that brings us back to the original question. Why
integrate? There are as many answers to this as there are people
in this room, but my answer is simple. It is the right thing to
do.
Take East Africa for example. Our region inherited borders,
traced by others many years ago in Europe. We were not
consulted because we were the property of others and as you
know, one does not consult his/her belongings before putting
them on sale. So does sustainability for East Africa mean a
ferocious defence of impermeable Intra East African borders?
I say no. Our borders are meant to delineate our limits of
Sovereignty, for we must do things properly. However they
cannot, and should not impose rigid divisions of our people.
Some say we should integrate our markets for sustainable
development. I agree. East African Integration is crucial for
trade, commerce, and industrialisation. No country in the
history has been able to succeed and prosper by turning inward
and keeping the “other” out. Those that tried to do so were
inevitably forced to change track quickly. International trade
is not a luxury to be enjoyed by some. It is a prerequisite for
our development. But if you cannot trade with your neighbour,
you will trade your neighbour! That is the lesson of Africa’s
history. Africans failed to trade with each other, and instead
participated in trading each other as slaves.

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So, yes, we must integrate to expand our markets and
productive capacities.
In East Africa, our Customs Union and Common Market
have shown promise. Intra EAC trade has more than doubled.
Our trade with the rest of the world has grown more than 60
per cent. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has grown
tremendously. EAC Partner States are becoming the most
important sources of each other’s FDI. We are dealing with
barriers to intra EAC trade, and increasing the efficiencies of
our ports, removing literal and figurative barriers to trade and
investing in the hard and soft infrastructure required to support
our growth. East Africa must integrate in order to survive.
We know that. But we are more than just a market. We are a
people with a historic mission and opportunity to create the
kind of polity we deserve. In the past, we participated in trading
each other. Now we are trading with each other. Our historic
mission surely must be to move beyond this to a truly United
Region, becoming One People with One Destiny!
This year, I look forward to the signing of an agreement on
a Monetary Union Protocol and, as our Treaty provides for,
an eventual Political Federation. This is because for East Africa,
half integration is dangerous. It frontloads the pain of
integration without providing the people of East Africa with
its benefits. Our Monetary Affairs Committee, under the able
leadership of the Governors of Central Banks has done
tremendous work in harmonising our monetary policies. Our
fiscal and financial policies are being harmonised. We are
working towards sharing experiences and managing our
natural resources in a harmonised fashion. Our security and
defence establishments are cooperating day and night to
enhance our security and safety.
So yes, we are a big, vibrant and growing market, but we
are more than just a market. Much more!

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There are those who love Africa without liking Africans.
They want the benefits that Association with Africa brings
them, as long as Africans are kept away from their lands. Well,
although I strongly disagree with them, though it is their
prerogative. The world does not owe Africa a living. Africa
owes Africans a living! East Africa must be different. We cannot
love East Africa without liking East Africans. That will not
build Community. We cannot find our deepest affirmations in
our own worth, as communities, sub-national or national
identities, by branding the rest as the undesirable other! That
is a recipe for disaster. We cannot have free movement of
goods without the free movement of labour and people.
That is why the free movement of labour provisions, the
rights of establishment, and the rights of residence are so
important. East Africa needs to continue to work to make
sure that movement and work in East Africa is hassle free for
East Africans. A Common Market should allow people to use
the market. A Monetary Union must anchor and contribute
to the unity of the people of East Africa.
East Africa’s integration of course sustains our common
heritage.
As our economies continue to grow, however, and they
most certainly will, we need to continuously work to make
sure that today’s growth translates into better living standards
for all our people, and that it does not jeopardise the wellbeing of the generations to come. Ours is a trust to keep, for
the present and the future.
This is why East African Cooperation is predicated, inter
alia, on the need to ensure sound environmental and natural
resources management principles for the proper functioning
of our Common Market, as well as on the need to refrain
from activities that are detrimental to the environment.

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Over the recent past, the EAC has been on the forefront in
addressing sustainable development challenges facing the
region through concerted efforts by its organs and institutions
established by the Treaty for the Establishment of the EAC
including participation in regional and international policy
processes. A point in case is the participation in the
negotiations on climate change and trade negotiations under
the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
and the World Trade Organisation.

Sustainable Development Challenges in the Region
The EAC region continues to face multiple challenges to
sustainable development. These range from financial, food,
energy and water crises, human and technological capital and
environmental management threats amongst others. New
challenges such as climate change and natural disasters are
exacerbating and threatening to retard and reverse social
economic development gains and in particular attainment of
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Climate Change and Food Insecurity
Climate change is one of the major threats to sustainable
development in the region. Although our share of the human
induced global carbon footprint is negligible, our region got
its clearest wakeup call in 2009 when large parts of the region
came under severe food insecurity after important loss of
pastures and livestock in addition to widespread crops failure,
mainly as a result of climate change. Today, large parts of the
region continue to experience erratic weather conditions and
events, characterised by extremes of weather conditions.
The impact of climate change on livelihoods, in particular
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development, becomes even more pronounced since East
Africa depends heavily on rain-fed agriculture where
agriculture contributes 40 per cent of the region’s GDP and
provides livelihood for 80 per cent of the population.
With about 40 million undernourished people, food security
is already one of the main challenges in the EAC where food
production is challenged by extreme weather conditions.
EAC strongly believes that a clean and healthy environment
is a prerequisite for sustainable development. Ours is a belief
informed by scientific evidence and reality. Our focus on
environmental and natural resource protection and
conservation programmes on shared trans-boundary
ecosystems that demand common approaches and collective
measures is critical. Protection of our environment is too
important to be left only to local and national authorities. It is
and must continue to be an important regional, continental
and global agenda. That is why I am pleased to inform you
that EAC has developed a Post Rio+20 Plan of Action following
the Rio+20 Summit held from 20-22 June, 2012 in Rio de
Janeiro that provided the framework for post 2015 MDGs in
the context of sustainable development and green economy
through the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The EAC recognises that green economy offers an
opportunity to bring together and strengthen economic,
environmental and social aspects to achieve sustainable
development goals. The concept of “Green Economy” is
inextricably linked to technology development, access and
transfer, issues that in conjunction with the provision of new
and additional financial resources and capacity building should
be properly addressed through international cooperation.
Energy accessibility, sustainability, affordability and security
should be at the centre of the discussions on Green Economy
and sustainable development.

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I am glad that CUTS is a partner in our agenda for
integration and development, including our collaboration in
EAC agriculture - climate change- trade linkages and the EAC
Geneva Forum. I thank you for this partnership.
But perhaps I should end where I started. Sustainability for
our region should not mean the maintenance of status quo,
like a patient on life support, whose doctors can be justly
proud that they have sustained his/her life. Neither should it
be like the actions of a man, who is told there is a lion in his
path and promptly runs away in the opposite direction to
sustain his life, without waiting to be informed that there is
also a pot of gold beyond the lion.
This is a century pregnant with promise for Africa. East
African partner states intend to reach middle income status
within this generation. We cannot do so as balkanised states.
We must deal with this, the lion between us and prosperity.
That is the meaning I give to what some have described as the
emergence of Africa’s lion or cheetah economies! Regional
and continental integration is critical to this transformation.
It provides the anchor for, and meaning to, development and
sustainable sustainability, if there is such a concept.

EAC-CUTS Collaboration
CUTS International’s goal is to contribute to the
achievement of development and poverty alleviation through
trade in its economic, environmental, social and political
dimensions. Its objectives include: contributing to a better
understanding of development concerns in trade and related
policies; enabling participation of developing country
stakeholders in trade and related policy making and its
implementation; stimulating interest of key actors working
on trade, development and poverty alleviation; and bridging

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the information gap for and among the trade and related policy
communities.
In view of the above challenges and the goals of EAC and
CUTS International, the two organisations are collaborating
on the following projects as opportunities to use their strengths
and comparative advantages to address some of the above
challenges that are affecting regional integration in the region:
(i) “Promoting Agriculture-Climate-Trade Linkages in the
EAC” (PACT-EAC) Project whose aim is to build the
capacity of stakeholders in EAC to better understand
and implement sound policies to harness the potential
of trade in reducing poverty and hunger in the face of
climate change. Agriculture provides livelihoods to 80
per cent of the EAC population. Yet, about 40 per cent
of East African are malnourished, a situation that can
get worse due to climate change. PACT EAC project
strives to meet this challenge through awarenessraising, inclusive research and training, and multistakeholder capacity building. The Project brings
together EAC stakeholders, in five countries and in
Geneva, to pursue a more integrated policy framework
on issues of food security, climate change and trade
and share information on the World Trade Organisation
and its linkages with other related international policy
dialogue processes including the UNFCCC; and
(ii) The EAC-Geneva Forum where every two months,
delegates from the missions of the five EAC countries
to the World Trade Organisation meet in Geneva to
discuss issues of common interest to them at the WTO.
The Forum also improves information sharing between
delegates and the grassroots in their respective
countries, trough the provision of update notes
prepared for them by the local civil society on issues

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related to the interplay between national, regional and
international trade policy.
In conclusion, I wish to reiterate EAC’s commitment to
addressing sustainable development challenges in the region
as part of the wider regional and international institutional
framework for sustainable development that is under
discussion as one of the themes of the Rio+20 Summit. The
EAC is firmly committed to the principles of international
environmental law.
I look forward to forging partnership with CUTS
International and other regional and international stakeholders
as we implement EAC’s strategic policy documents.

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18
Regional Integration as a
Tool for Poverty Reduction
in West Africa
Hannah S Tetteh
Minister for Foreign Affairs and
Regional Integration, Ghana

I

wish to to share with you some perspectives on the topic:
“Regional Integration as a Tool for Poverty Reduction in
West Africa”. I hope that at the end of my delivery, I would
have succeeded in raising some of the critical issues that will
engender further debate and contribute not only to policyformulation but also more effective implementation to promote
the growth of our individual countries and our continent.

What is Regional Integration?
The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines
‘Integration’ as “the act or process of combining two or more
things so that they work together.” Regional integration is,
however, a more complex process. It usually involves several
countries, whether at the sub-regional or continental level,

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with different economic interests, languages, administrative
systems, national priorities and political and social challenges.
Yet in embracing the concept of Regional Integration, these
countries must have an appreciation of the fact that
notwithstanding their many points of divergence, they have
important common interests that have to be discussed and
promoted, not only for the benefit of the larger regional
grouping or continent, but ultimately for the benefit of the
individual Member States. Even though there is no exact
agreement on the definition of the concept, it mostly involves
developing a cooperation framework on the basis of one or
more written agreements that describe the areas of
cooperation in detail, as well as some coordinating bodies
representing the countries involved.
Some scholars, however, prefer to use the term
‘regionalism’, referring to any kind of regional cooperation;
whilst other focus more on ‘integration’, often meaning
economic integration. Economic integration includes but is
not limited to the creation of free trade areas, customs unions,
economic communities, and monetary unions. When
understood this way, ‘Integration’ will be deemed to be
different from ‘Cooperation’. Cooperation, then, is a much
weaker and loose form of teamwork among sovereign states
and it is more issue specific. Regional integration, on the other
hand, connotes more engaging and deeper processes,
relationships, coordination and activities among the member
states, which could eventually lead to the formation of a
common market, a common currency, free trade area or even
political union among the integrating states in the long term.
When I use the term ‘Regional Integration’, therefore, I am
referring to this deeper relationships among states.

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The History of Regional Integration in West Africa
Soon after attaining independence in the late 1950s and
early 1960s, African leaders, inspired by the philosophy of
Pan-Africanism, expressed the desire to adopt a united
continental effort to tackle the numerous post-colonial
challenges that confronted their people. By and large, the
political vision among the leaders at the time was focused on
three issues; namely, continental political unity, nation-building,
and decolonisation of the remaining colonised countries and
those under apartheid rule.
It was this vision that led to the formation of the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the
African Union. By the 1970s, the independence agenda and
the freedom from Colonial Government initiative had made
progress; however, the political and economic state of Africa
had worsened, marked by weak governance structures,
dictatorial rule, conflicts and political instability, economic
challenges, worsening terms of trade, increasing poverty etc.
The vision of continental political and economic unity looked
bleak. Something needed to be done differently.
Then came Adebayo Adedeji, erstwhile Executive Secretary
of the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Africa
(UNECA), who was not only convinced that the way out for
Africa was political and economic unity, but also that the best
strategy was to begin the process at the much smaller subregional level. With his determination and, of course, support
from some West African leaders within our sub-region, the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was
founded in 1975.
The formation of ECOWAS was unprecedented in at least
two important respects. First, it brought together for the first
time 15 West African countries with varied linguistic, colonial
and pre-colonial histories and experiences. Second, the creation
of ECOWAS was a clear indication that West African leaders

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were determined to find a way of working together with the
primary objective of enhancing the economic development of
the sub-region with an ambitious cooperative framework.
The expectations for the new organisation were
understandably high. First, it was thought that the organisation
will enable the Member States to create an enlarged market
for their products, which would stimulate the development of
new industries and especially give fillip to the development of
the manufacturing sector. It was envisaged that the enlarged
market will enable industries and producers to exploit
economies of scale and promote market specialisation that
will ultimately lead to improved terms of trade for the region.
A single West African market with a population of almost
300 million was thought to be the vehicle to increase the
region’s bargaining power in its dealings with other regions
and trading blocs. The challenges of globalisation, particularly
its attendant vulnerabilities for developing and weaker
economies, were also thought to be better tackled within the
collective regional framework.

The State of Regional Integration in West Africa
38 years on, the common problems that motivated the
founding fathers to establish ECOWAS as a regional economic
community are still with us. Over the years, ECOWAS has
shifted focus away from its core mandate of regional economic
integration to address the challenges of conflicts and political
instability. What we also see is the emergence of new threats
such as piracy, armed robbery against ships, poaching, and
drug trafficking which introduce added complexity to the
maintenance of peace and stability which is the foundation
for the deepening and expansion of trade and economic ties,
as well as the very sources of livelihood of our people.

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Meanwhile, the traditional problems of poverty, disease
and malnutrition, unemployment, and low living standards
continue to stare us in the face. According to the 2013 Human
Development Report of the United Nations Development
Programme, 12 out of the 15 ECOWAS Member States exhibit
some of the lowest socio-economic development indicators,
including the lowest Human Development Index ratings in
the world. This parlous economic state led to over-reliance
on foreign aid and loans, a situation that resulted in the
designation of almost all the ECOWAS countries at one time
or the other (with the exception of Nigeria and Cape Verde)
as Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC).
Our regional integration efforts are also still characterised
by low political will to implement regional commitments,
relatively lower intra-regional trade, cross border harassment,
and generally weak economies of Member States. All these
challenges have made it impossible for us to fully tap the
benefits of our regional integration efforts. For this to change,
a certain amount of introspection, and a real collective effort
to implement the integration agenda as a catalyst for
development and change is required.

Regional Integration and Poverty Reduction
In spite of the enormous challenges discussed above,
regional integration in West Africa has contributed somewhat
to poverty reduction though the data to support this position
is not easily available. The protocol on the free movement of
people has made it considerably easier to move people and
agricultural products over our borders. We must improve the
administrative arrangements as well. For sure, ECOWAS is
celebrated within and outside Africa as one of the most
innovative and advanced among the continent’s regional
economic communities. This is particularly in the areas of

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conflict prevention, management and peacekeeping which are
prerequisites for socio-economic development, but more as
an example of successful political rather than economic
cooperation.
i. Peace and Security
The ECOWAS Standby Force, or ECOMOG, is held as a
model for other Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in
the continent. Its interventions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and
Guinea went a long way to stabilise the countries and to place
them on the path of development. Recently in Cote d’Ivoire
and currently in Mali, the collective efforts of West Africans
led to interventions and peace processes that restored order
and stability in those countries. What is important here is the
belief among the regional leadership that without peace, there
cannot be meaningful development. Therefore, if we have to
spend all our resources to restore peace in the region, it will
appear to be the right thing to do.
So in assessing the impact of regional integration on poverty
reduction in West Africa, you may not see much concrete
results on the ground if all you are looking for is the rate of
poverty reduction. But if you consider that without our
collective efforts, these conflicts could have actually deepened
the poverty in the region, you will appreciate how far we have
come. Since the outbreak of the crisis in Mali and Guinea
Bissau, for instance, several Extraordinary Summits of
ECOWAS Heads of State and Government have been
convened to discuss the restoration of peace and stability in
the Member States.
If all the time, energy and resources expended on these
two conflicts had been channelled into poverty-reduction
programmes, one can only imagine the impact it would have
had on the citizens. Yet, these have been the issues that

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ECOWAS has been dealing with all these years. The sad thing,
though, is that sometimes our regional integration efforts are
not viewed within this context; rather we have often been
judged in comparison with the success stories of the European
Union. It is important to remember the peculiarity of our
circumstances and deal with them as best as we can.
ii. Democracy and Human Rights
It is also important to note the gradual entrenchment of
democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights in
the region, following the decision of ECOWAS not to
countenance any unconstitutional regimes. More and more,
West African citizens are becoming conscious of their rights
and freedoms under constitutional rule; they are able to hold
their leaders more accountable; and they are able to stand up
courageously to the ills of their societies. The expressions of
these freedoms are directly translated into economic gains for
the people, including the freedom to pursue their dreams and
become economically self-sufficient.
iii. Free Movement
There are, however, some concrete initiatives of ECOWAS
that are contributing directly to poverty reduction in West
Africa. The first I will like to talk about is the Protocol on the
Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services. Whilst
admittedly, there are still challenges with the implementation
of the Protocol, as previously stated, no one can deny the
benefits that the Protocol has brought to the region. The
abolishing of visa requirement for Community citizens and
the free movement of goods, services and labour has facilitated
cross-border trade, engendered new businesses and business
partnerships, expanded productions, and generally increased
private sector participation in national development. This is,

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no doubt, increasing employment in the region and reducing
dependency.
iv. ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLs)
The establishment of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation
Scheme (ETLs) is another critical project in the Community’s
drive to promote and consolidate economic integration in West
Africa, and thus reduce poverty among its people. The Scheme
is anchored on the complete removal of all trade barriers in
the region, and the standardisation of all custom duties and
taxes of equivalent effect, with the view to enhancing intraregional trade. Presently, more than 100 private sector
organisations have been certified under the scheme to deal in
over 255 different products across the region. The certified
companies are not supposed to pay customs duties on their
approved products, a situation that is creating new market
opportunities for them and helping them to grow their
businesses and also enhancing their participation in the
integration agenda.
v. Agriculture
Agriculture which is the main economic activity of most
Community citizens has also been given a boost by the regional
organisation through the adoption of technology-based
innovative measures to facilitate the exchange of agriculturerelated information within the Community. One example of
this innovation is the Marketing Information Systems and
Trader’s Organisations in West Africa (MISTOWA). The
project seeks to strengthen regional market information
systems where they exist, or develop new ones, improve the
capacity of regional trade and producer organisations, as well
as boost the general trade environment in West Africa. This

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will make it possible for business people within the Community
to exchange information and share business ideas.
In addition, ECOWAS has since 2005 adopted a common
agricultural policy known as the ECOWAS Common
Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP). Among other things, the
objectives of the policy are to ensure food security for the
rural and urban populations of West Africa; reduce
dependency on imports; develop human capacities, and
contribute to the reduction of the vulnerability of West African
economies to the volatility in the international market for
agricultural produce. If properly implemented, the policy
should boost production, result in food sufficiency and, thus,
reduce the incidences of poverty, hunger and malnutrition in
the region.
vi. Transport
The transport sector is another area where ECOWAS can
be given a pat on the back. So far, the Community has
supported the construction of the trans-coastal highway from
Lagos to Nouakchott (9000km) and the trans-Sahelian highway
from Dakar to N’Djamena (11000km). Of particular need for
mention is the transnational Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project.
The project which is a Public-Private Partnership was
conceived by ECOWAS and the African Business Roundtable
in conjunction with the African Business Climate facility and
the African Development Bank.
It seeks to promote trade within the region as well as
provide enhanced access to export markets for landlocked
countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali. When completed,
the highway will pass through five West African countries;
namely, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. It is
envisaged that the corridor will ultimately serve as a PanAfrican road network that will run from Mauritania in the
north, to Kenya in the east. ECOWAS also plans to improve

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rail transportation in the region, and plans are already
underway for the construction of a railway network from
Accra to Lagos. These projects will expand access within the
region, facilitating movement, boosting trade, and ultimately
creating more employment for the people.
vii. Telecommunications
Between 1984 and 1994, ECOWAS completed the
INTELCOM I project which connected 13 West African
capitals through automatic telephone, telex and telefax
communication links. The second phase of the project,
INTELCOM II, is expected to facilitate the full digitalisation
of telecommunication links in the region when completed.
Specifically, it hopes to establish 32 intra-state fibre-optic links
to create a regional backbone for Member States. This will,
no doubt, transform the Community into an information society
based on the development, promotion and large-scale
deployment and, thus, facilitate trade and economic growth
in the region.
ECOWAS has also been instrumental in the establishment
of the global system for mobile communication (GSM) roaming
facilities in the region to improve and reduce the cost of intraregional cellular phone calls. Some of you may know that it is
currently more expensive to make some intra-regional calls
than to make calls to other parts of the world. This is because
some of the calls have to be routed through facilities in Europe
or America before the signals are re-routed back to subscribers
in the region. In order to change this trend, more than 30
GSM licenses have already been issued in the various Member
States.

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viii. Health
In the area of health, the establishment of the West Africa
Health Organisation (WAHO) to co-ordinate the efforts of
Member States in fighting diseases, among others, is another
important initiative of ECOWAS that is contributing to poverty
reduction. Some of the Member States have developed joint
initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS through such projects as the
Abidjan-Lagos Transport Corridor project which involved
Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
In its First Strategic Plan, WAHO undertook measures to
combat malaria, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and maternal and
infant mortality. WAHO was also engaged in efforts for the
prevention of blindness, access to medicines and vaccines,
epidemiological surveillance, as well as training and health
information management. In its Second Strategic Plan, the
organisation is still pursuing this agenda in addition to the
treatment of non-communicable diseases. Given the lack of
access to basic health facilities, particularly in rural West
Africa, and the associated cost, the activities of WAHO is
certainly contributing significantly to both preventive and
curative healthcare in the region.
ix. Gender Promotion
The ECOWAS Gender Development Centre based in
Dakar was established to promote gender issues in West
Africa. The Centre collaborates with Member States to, among
others, collect data on the situation of women in the region;
implement apprenticeship programmes for the acquisition of
skills; and provide assistance to women to promote their
sources of livelihood. Ghana is currently benefitting from three
programmes of the Centre; namely, the Obstetrics Fistula
programme; the Scholarships of Excellence for Girls
programme, and the Food Processing, Fisheries and

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Handicrafts programme. These programmes are healing and
transforming the beneficiaries into economically self-sufficient
women, enabling them to easily able to translate the gains
into caring for their families.
x. Vision 2020
Some of you may be aware of the new ECOWAS vision,
called Vision 2020, which was launched in June 2007. The
vision essentially shifts focus from an “ECOWAS of States”
to an “ECOWAS of People”, with the aim of building a
“borderless, prosperous and cohesive region where people
have the capacity to access and harness its enormous resources
through the creation of opportunities for sustainable
development and environmental preservation.”
Before now, the processes to build ECOWAS had been
concentrated mainly on Heads of State and other top political
appointees, acting on behalf of Member States. The new
thinking, however, is that in order for the process to work,
ordinary grassroots people need to be involved.
Vision 2020 therefore rests on five pillars; namely,
governance; infrastructure; private sector; women, children
and youth; and sustainable environmental practices. The vision
is gradually transforming the workings of ECOWAS, allowing
it to consult and collaborate more with Member States as well
as non-state actors such as the private sector and civil society
organisations. This realisation, albeit late, is indicative of a
regional body that is willing to examine its performance and
to redefine its mission. It is hoped that all actors in the region
will now be drawn to the new vision so that collectively we
can diagnose our common problems and reach common
ground, going forward.

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The Way Forward
In the post-Cold War international system which is driven
largely by globalisation, regional integration is not an option;
it is an imperative, particularly for smaller and weaker states
such as those in the West African region. We must therefore
be prepared to either integrate our efforts for sustainable
economic development or gradually fade into oblivion.
A lot still needs to be done in this regard to deepen economic,
social and political ties in order to promote development and
enhance the quality of lives of our people. Successful
integration will equip the region with the necessary tools for
the fierce competition that is taking place across the globe.
ECOWAS therefore needs to continue to create an atmosphere
of peace and stability as preconditions for sustainable
development. In this regard, its conflict management
mechanisms and capacity need to be continually strengthened
to enhance its credibility at all levels. Everything needs to be
done to maintain the peace and stability that has returned to
Member States that had been in conflict, whilst efforts are
also made to stabilise existing conflict zone. But more
importantly, ECOWAS needs to strengthen its conflict
prevention mechanisms rather than the continual resort to
reactive measures. Prevention is by far, the only sustainable
and cost effective strategy.
Closely related to the above is the need for the regional
body to continue to deepen democracy and strengthen
institutions among its Member States. This has the effect of
internalising the spirit of accountability and transparency,
thereby ensuring that resources are used effectively for the
improvement of the quality of lives of the people.
Expanding intra-regional trade, which currently stands at
less than 20 per cent, is one other objective that should
preoccupy ECOWAS in its efforts to reduce poverty in the
region. This will, however, not materialise unless Member

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States become fully committed to the total eradication of
artificial barriers which presently constitute major
impediments to the free movement of people, goods and
services across the region. Intra-ECOWAS trade will also be
significantly improved if national production structures are
properly coordinated and aligned to complement one another.
ECOWAS needs to effectively engage the private sector in the
region to identify realistic ways of promoting intra-community
trade. The Private Sector has expressed its challenges and the
call on national Governments is to effectively deal with them.
The implementation of the Joint Border Post arrangements
should make it less cumbersome to deal with the administrative
bureaucracy at our borders; agreeing on the Common External
Tariff which will hopefully take place in October this year in
Dakar, should make it easier for us to do business with the
world and each other; whilst improving payment systems is
key to trade facilitation. Equally important is the need for
economic transactions in the region to be conducted
transparently and speedily in order for it to attract the badly
needed external investments that are indispensable to
integration, sustainable economic development and, ultimately,
poverty reduction.
The region’s agricultural sector also deserves critical
attention and transformation. Whilst close to 70 per cent of
the region’s population rely on agriculture, much of the
activities in the area are of a subsistence nature which does
not allow the citizens to become self-sufficient in food
production, much less expend on other areas of poverty
alleviation like education. The resultant over-reliance on food
importation drains the region’s foreign exchange earnings and
only worsens the harsh economic conditions. ECOWAS must,
therefore, commit itself to the development of the region’s
agricultural sector by effectively coordinating the agricultural

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policies of Member States and properly aligning them with its
own.
Another area that requires serious attention by ECOWAS
is human resource development. An educated and capable
human resource remains indispensable to the efficient
exploitation of the region’s enormous resources for its
development. It is, undoubtedly, the panacea to the widespread
poverty, technological backwardness, and economic and social
deprivation of the region. Member States, therefore, need to
consciously increase budgetary allocations to education as a
strategy to produce an intelligent, creative, capable, and reliable
workforce that will drive the desired economic growth and
sustainable development which are prerequisites for poverty
reduction.
Finally, we cannot look at the way forward without talking
about continued cooperation to improve our infrastructure
deficit: expand the roads, ports, railways and airports that are
critical to enhancing integration and making it cost effective
to do so.

Conclusion
I hope that I have succeeded in sharing some perspectives
with you on the subject matter of regional integration and its
impact on poverty reduction. Of course, I do not presume to
have covered all the issues that the topic entails. But I do hope
that I have raised some critical issues that will engender more
discussions and debates beyond these walls.
Please allow me to conclude by once again expressing my
profound gratitude to the organisers of this event for inviting
me to this platform. I will also like to thank all of you for your
kind attention.

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19
Regional Trade:
A Catalyst for Growth and Sustainability
of Small Businesses in the Southern
African Region
Caleb M Fundanga
President, Institute for Finance and Economics &
Former Governor, Bank of Zambia

E

xchange of goods and services is good for the society.
This fact was established by early economists such as Adam
Smith (specialisation) and David Ricardo (comparative
advantage). It has been firmly established that through
international trade a country is able to achieve higher rates of
economic growth than would be possible without trade
because it can produce for a larger (global) population than
the population of its own nationals. It is in this context that
trade is seen as the engine of growth. There is no nation that
has achieved economic greatness without excelling in the
external trade sector. US, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China are all countries that have
excelled in the external trade sector.

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External trade sector performance is based on being able
to capture a big chunk of the global market. A successful
company is one that is able to sell its product globally.
Unfortunately because the modern economy is divided into
national states the objective of conquering the global economy
by producers is often frustrated by numerous tariff and non
tariff barriers erected by individual states for various reasons
such as:
- need to achieve national self-sufficiency;
- need to protect domestic producers; and
- national security.
In recognition of the fact that a larger market is better than
a smaller market, national governments have over time sought
to expand market access through regional economic integration
schemes with varying degrees of closeness of integration e.g.,
through:
• Preferential Trade Areas
• Free Trade Areas
• Customs Unions
• Common Markets
• Economic Community
Various examples of economic integration can be given e.g.
SADC, COMESA, EAC, EU etc. From the Economic theory
point of view the theory of economic integration falls in what
is called “the theory of the second best”. The best trade
environment is the global market. It is the largest and therefore,
represents the best opportunities for any ambitious producer.
But in recognition that the achievement of a global market
may be difficult to achieve in the short to medium run, nations
have been willing to go for a second best solution by creating
large markets through integration with neighbouring counties.
Policies within an integrating region aim to eliminate non-tariff

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barriers, establish a common external tariff against nonmembers and the abolition of tariff between the members. A
market is, therefore, created where all producers within the
integrating region can compete on a level playing field at the
exclusion of non-members.
Increased competition by producers within the integrating
region can lead to improved efficiency/productivity which in
turn can enable them to compete with producers from outside
the integrating region.
From this, it follows that one of the main benefits to be
derived from integration is improved efficiency resulting from
competition within the integration region. It is efficiency in
production which enables countries to compete globally. In
this regard, it is important to note that the Asian tigers have
managed to conquer global market without the need for
economic integration (leading to the tag – Asian Tigers hunt
alone). For us in Southern Africa we have argued that
integration is the key to success (African Lions hunt in a Pride).
It is arguable whether we should start by emphasising
efficiency from the very beginning or we should achieve
efficiency via integration. What is clear, however, is that
whoever seeks to conquer the global market must eventually
break out of the regional shell and hunt the globe alone.
Regional integration in this regard can be seen as a steppingstone into the global market. It helps small and medium scale
producers to start producing for a market beyond their national
borders

Integration in the African context
Africa has had a long history of economic integration and
some experiences predate the independence era. The
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is an example.

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The African integration agenda was promulgated in the 1991
the Abuja Treaty. It aimed at creating a competitive single
market and currency for Africa. It came into force in 1994.
The process was to be achieved initially through the creation
of Regional Economic Communities (RECs). These would
serve as building blocks from which the African Single Market
would eventually emerge. It was anticipated that each region
of Africa would be represented by one REC. The process has
been rather slow and in some instances, new developments
have tended to slow the pace. For example, instead of having
one REC per region and each country belonging to only one
REC we have seen the emergence of RECs that transcend
more than one region.
COMESA for example includes members from East Africa
Community and SADC. Some countries belong to all three
schemes. This complicates implementation of programmes.
In some cases a lot of time is spent on debates about which
scheme should prevail over the others. Progress in
implementation of the integration agenda has been slow for
other reasons as well such as lack of political will, lack of
financial resources etc. The African Economic Outlook 2013
notes that due to the slow pace of development of the
integration agenda some countries have started to push for
fast tracking of the process. They feel that integration could
increase their bargaining power in international bodies such
as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and negotiating
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Africa and International Trade
African Economic Outlook 2013 report has noted that
between 2000 and 2011 Africa’s exports had almost
quadrupled in value from USD148.6bn a year to USD581.8bn.
Within this development, it has been observed that:-

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a) The European Union and the US saw their share of
African exports fall from 47 per cent in 2000 to 33 per
cent in 2011 in the case of Europe and from 17 to 10
per cent in the case of the US.
b) The emerging economies (China, India, Brazil, Russia)
have on the other hand increased their share of African
exports:
Table 1: Share of Africa Export (%)
Year 2000

Year 2011

European Union

47

33

US

17

10

China

3.2

13

India

2.8

6

Brazil

2

3

Russia

0.2

0.3

c) Primary exports remain the overwhelming export. Their
share in total exports increased from 72 per cent in 2000
to 78 per cent in 2011. The share of manufactured goods
in the total declined from 21 per cent to 16 per cent
over this period. Oil was the main export and its share
rose from 51 per cent in 2000 to 57 per cent in 2011.
Table 2: Breakdown of Africa’s Oil Exports (%)
Year 2000

Year 2011

European Union

44

31

US

25

22

China

4.4

13.6

India

2.9

7.5

Brazil

3

4

Russia

-

0.3

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The increasing role of China in Africa’s exports is visible
in exports of primary commodities as well (excluding fuel and
food). In 2000 China accounted for 4.8 per cent of Africa’s
primary exports and this had risen to 28.8 per cent in 2011.
In a way, Africa’s dependence on fuel/primary commodities
exports is increasing and the main markets for these exports
are outside Africa. Africa trades less with itself. Can integration
end this?

Trade and regional integration in Africa
According to the Africa Economic Outlook 2013 report,
trade between African countries is currently estimated at
10-12 per cent of the Continent’s total exports and this is far
below that of other regions of the world. 2009 statistics
showed (in per centage):
North America
48
Europe
72
Asia
52
In spite of regional economic integration schemes in Africa,
intra- regional trade in Africa has been very low.
Table 3: Regional Trade Flows 2003-2007
INTRA RECs

OUTSIDE RECs
(Africa)

OTHERS
(GLOBAL)

Exports

Imports

Exports

Imports

Exports

Imports

0.9

5.2

2.7

8.9

96.4

85.9

COMESA

8.7

11.1

8.6

17.2

82.7

71.7

EAC

12.6

18.7

7.2

9.9

80.2

71.4

ECCAS

0.7

3.8

2.2

14

97.1

82.2

ECOWAS

13.9

15.8

5.5

5.2

80.6

79

SADC

19.9

33.1

2.3

2.6

77.8

64.3

CEMAC

Source UNECA (2008) assessing Regional Integration in Africa

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CEMAC- Central African Economic and Monetary
Community
COMESA – Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
EAC – East African Community
ECCAS - Economic Community of Central Africa States
ECOWAS – Economic Community of West Africa States
SADC – Southern African Development Community
Table 3 confirms that Africa trades less with itself. The
SADC region exhibits higher levels of intra regional trade. In
examining southern Africa trade performance the African
Development Bank’s Southern Africa Regional Integration
Strategy Paper 2011-2015 had made some important
observations:i. Intra SADC trade between 2000 and 2008 had
increased from US$11.6bn to US$29.3bn and this
increase was driven by the region’s shift in the source
of imports from Europe to South Africa following the
end of apartheid. (This is very clear, for example in
the supply of mining equipment. South Africa is the
regional hub for most of the global suppliers of mining
equipment).
ii. South Africa exports a lot of manufactured consumer
goods. (The recent expansion of South African
supermarket chains into the region has increased the
bias for South African consumer goods). Thus the
increase in Intra regional trade is concentrated in one
country.
iii. The pattern of trade within the region and between
the region and the rest of the World is different. While
South African manufactured products dominate intra
regional trade, exports to the rest of the world are
mainly primary commodities. The strategic paper
further notes that while the region’s exports to the rest

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of the world are concentrated around a few products,
intra regional trade is much more diversified thus
suggesting that expanding intra regional trade could
yield significant benefits to countries in the region in
terms of diversifying their production to non-traditional
products, especially manufactures.
The scope for expanding intra regional trade in
SADC exists if only South Africa can open up more to
the products of other SADC member countries. South
Africa still has in place a number of non-tariff barriers.
A number of agricultural products from the region
cannot enter the South African market for one reason
or another (Zambian beans for example cannot enter
that market. Recently the Zambia Parliament was told
that Zambian grapes cannot be sold in South Africa
which alleges that they are associated with a certain
disease). South African companies, which are dominant
in a number of SADC countries, tend to favour South
African products e.g. South African Breweries
promotes the sale of Castle Lager all over the region
but does not promote other beer brands in South Africa
even if it now owns the breweries that produce these
beers e.g. the Zambian Lager Mosi.

What can Zambia sell to regional markets?
There seems to be a pervasive feeling amongst most
Zambians that there is little that can be exported from Zambia,
other than copper, a product of an industry which is mainly
dominated by external investor interests. This is not true. A
number of export opportunities can be identified.
i. Grains – Maize (already being exported), wheat (huge
potential) and rice.

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ii. Agro processed products– with the huge potential for
producing almost any agriculture product, a large
variety of vegetables and fruit can be produced in
Zambia. These can be canned or dried and sold in the
region.
iii. Fruits of the forest – the range is large, hard wood
products, honey, mushrooms, etc. all have a huge
market in the region and beyond. Zambia has been
importing charcoal from South Africa when the
opposite should be the case.
iv. Processed minerals – given the wide range of mineral
resources, potential list of exports here is also large.
Production of copper products like copper cable,
copper wire etc. have a huge market all over the region,
but very little is being produced for export. Much of
current production goes to South Africa while Zambia
and other countries have to import inferior cables.
v. Others – Cement, sugar, edible oils etc have a huge
market in neighbouring countries like DR Congo, but
Zambia has failed to capture this market for a variety
of reasons including language barriers. Many of the
trucks passing through Zambia are ferrying consumer
goods that can be/are already being produced in
Zambia.
Zambia has the additional advantage of having hosted
liberation movements of the region for a very long time. Many
of the people from these countries are very familiar with
Zambian food crops and long to access these products. A huge
market exists for Kapenta fish for example, but there is nobody
willing to sell it. Kapenta fish can be sold even in Europe.
Currently kapenta fish sold in countries like England, Germany
etc comes from South Korea. Europe has a market for local
delicacies like Impwa, Cassava, etc. The most successful

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exporting nations of recent times like South Korea have
exported almost unimaginable products. I have seen canned
Inswa from South Korea selling in Germany.
Success in exporting to the region is perhaps much easier
than exporting far because of similarities in cultures and tastes.
Most Southern Africans eat the same basic food – the maize
meal based Nshima. This is very different from West Africans
whose staple food is rice. It is, therefore, much easier to create
sustainable incomes in the region selling traditional staple foods
for a start. This can be done by a lot of our budding
entrepreneurs. The same applies for a lot of other products.
Success in exporting to the regional market will obviously
create more incomes and jobs and will most certainly reduce
the dependence on the fortunes of the mining industry for
growth and prosperity.
Overcoming obstacles: There are clearly a lot of obstacles to
success in penetrating the regional market. Economic
integration can help the process. It helps to harmonise polices
between member countries and sometimes helps in the
development of trade infrastructure. Government willingness
to undertake the integration agenda is the key to success of
this process. At the level of institutions charged with
implementing the integration agenda e.g. SADC and COMESA
secretariats it is important that they start looking at integration
from the grassroots agenda. There is a general feeling that
these institutions are concerned more with how the big
companies can benefit. For our purpose, we need an
integration agenda aimed at benefiting small and medium scale
enterprises.
While operating in an economic integration scheme can
help, a lot of needs to be done at the individual enterprise
level. Products to enter the regional trade market must be of a
high quality because they will have to compete against similar

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213

products from the whole region. Aggressive marketing and
proper branding and packaging are also key ingredients.
Zambian business must learn to be outgoing by learning to
speak languages of potential customers. The SADC/COMESA
region has at least four key languages – English, French,
Portuguese and Swahili. Success in regional trade might require
capacity to operate in all these languages.

References
1. African Development Bank (1993) - Economic Integration in Southern
Africa Vol. 1
2. African Development Bank (2011) - Southern Africa Regional
Integration Strategic Paper 2011 – 2015.
3. AfDB, OECD, UNDP, UNECA (2013) - Africa Economic Outlook
2013.
4. Omar Kabba, (2003) – The challenge of African Development
5. Suleiman Kiggundu (2004) - “Leading Issues in African Trade – the
Role of the African Export – Import Bank”
6. Vremudia P. Diejomaoh (2004) – Trade and Development at the
Dawn of a New Millennium
7. Alemayehu Geda (2006) – Export Development Strategy, Export
Success stories and Lessons for Africa.213

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Annexure:
Press Releases

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217

1. Aadhaar can be gateway
to many services: Nilekani
Jaipur, January 25, 2013
The Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer scheme may have
generated criticism for glitches in its implementation, but
Nandan Nilekani the architect of the unique identity card
(UID) project is optimistic about its chances, calling its benefits
multiple and far-reaching.
The former Infosys CEO said Aaadhar would not only be a
first identity card for many people in rural areas but would
also work as a proof of identity for a host of services, which
can be electronically verified within seconds, saving people
time and money, and avoiding inconvenience.
While it is not mandatory to have an Aadhaar card (like
the enrollment under national population register, which
determines citizenship), the UID number will be a gateway to
number of services like opening bank accounts, applying for
passports, driving licences or LPG connections as the service
providers will accept it as poof of KYC (know your customer)
documentation, Nilekani said while delivering a lecture to mark
the 30th anniversary of consumer advocacy group CUTS
International.
Drawing parallel to the adoption of CNG in Delhi,
secretary general of CUTS International Pradeep S Mehta said
that the initial glitches can happen in a project like this but the
benefits are huge and the problems can be resolved. He said
vested interests did not want the conversion to CNG and the

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level of pollution was unbearable. But now, the benefits are
there for everybody to see, he added.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who addressed the gathering,
said that Rajasthan will be rolling out 10 schemes based on
Aadhaar very soon. Rajasthan has been at the forefront of
implementing the direct cash transfer scheme having three
districts out of the 20 in the country.

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2. Is Inclusive Growth Measureable?
New Delhi, June 05, 2013
“The government has come out with twenty-five monitoring
indicators to chart the country’s inclusive growth over a period
of time”, said Montek Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the
Planning Commission of India, while delivering the CUTS 30th
Anniversary Lecture at New Delhi yesterday. “The same will
soon be available on the Planning Commission of India’s
website for public access”, he added.
The theme of the lecture was “Inclusive Growth: What
does it Mean”. Also speaking on the occasion were Mr. Kirit
Parikh, Executive Director of Integrated Research for Action
and Development who chaired the session, Mr. TCA Srinivasa
Raghavan, Editorial Advisor to CEO, Kasturi & Sons and Mr.
Surjit Bhalla, Managing Director, Oxus Research and
Investment.
As a precursor to the discussion, Parikh introduced
Inclusive Growth as an open matrix including development of
both poor as well as rich, without neglecting either.
Speaking on the occasion, Ahluwalia acknowledged that
Inclusive Growth is a multi-dimensional concept and giving it
a single definition would not be easy. He also stated that the
concept of Inclusive Growth has now evolved into the concept
of Inclusive and Sustainable Growth, but we first need to
grapple with growth per se, without ignoring the sustainability
dimension.

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Nehru, the original growthwallah
Ahluwalia said that the government while looking at the
concept of growth has never focused on strengthening the
nation but on raising the nation to an acceptable level of living.
Calling Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister,
the original growthwallah of the country, he reiterated and
agreed with his words that to bring the nation to an acceptable
level of living, the national income needs to be increased. These
words are from Nehru’s drafting in 1938 when he chaired the
Indian National Congress’s committee on the economy.
Answering the question on, “Does growth reduce poverty”,
Ahluwalia responded that in early days, the focus of growth
used to be only poverty reduction, however, it was gradually
realised that to bring in growth more than eradication of
poverty is needed. The cake has to be expanded to generate
resources for poverty reduction. Growth does not only mean
making poor people less poor but its prime focus should be
social mobility, i.e. giving people a chance to trade their
positions in society.
Inclusive growth on the other hand also faces the challenges
on reducing the gap between various classes in the country
such as the rural-urban divide, among various Indian states,
inequalities across various socio-economic groups based on
caste, gender, marginalised groups like religious/regional
minorities, handicapped etc.
Ahluwalia strongly felt that the focus of growth must not
be only on reducing poverty but it should also be a job creating
growth benefitting both lower as well as middle class. He
acknowledged that growth is affected not only by
government’s policies but also by global economy, cronyism,
among other factors. Keeping in mind the weak global economy
in future, India will need to strengthen its own backyard, he
added.

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India can do seven pc growth in the next two years
He stated that India is capable of a growth performance
above 7 per cent over the next two years if corrective and
timely measures are taken.
As per Ahluwalia, to achieve the level of growth China has
achieved India will need to improve infrastructure, improve
management of land and urbanisation so that new management
may be set up and finally introduce flexibility of labour laws.
Acknowledging that for a decent inclusive growth, less
restrictive labour laws will be required, however, consensus
will first be required from labour in this respect.
TCA Srinivasa Raghavan, agreeing with Ahluwalia’s view
that glass is certainly not full but is filling, asserted that the
problem is not with the Indian labour laws but with the manner
in which management manages the trade unions, and how the
labour courts perform. He said that the major way to bring
about inclusive growth will be by achieving non-convexity.
Surjit Bhalla defined Inclusive Growth to mean equality of
opportunity. He acknowledged India as a unique multidimensional country and mentioned that the country has
numerous success stories in terms of social mobility, child
mortality, sex ratio, etc. and there is a need to advertise and
market the story of India’s growth properly and he is hopeful
about change.
Lively Q&A session
There was a lively Q&A session, when numerous micro
and macro issues were raised by the over 100 participants in
the hall. For instance, a question was raised on the role of
private sector, and Ahluwalia responded that healthy
competition can lead to better corporate governance. On sticky
industrial relations, he said that consensus building is going
on, and in a democracy like India, it is not easy. He asserted

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that non-discriminatory participation of every citizen is
required.
Questions were also raised on industrial relations, security
and other issues.
Pradeep Mehta of CUTS referring to his long association
with Ahluwalia and said that according to CUTS studies,
flanking policies such as education, health, social infrastructure
need to be effectively in place for reaping the benefits of
growth, otherwise it can lead to asymmetries.
Marking an end to the session, Kirit Parikh in his
summarisation said that the multi-dimensional concept of
Inclusive Growth should translate to mean every child having
an expectation of a basic minimum income.
While proposing the vote of thanks, Bipul Chatterjee, said
that while it is easy to measure absolute growth, mechanics of
measuring inclusive growth need to be developed.

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3. Multilateral Trading System Should
Respond to the Ever-Changing Global
Economy by Keeping Development at its
Centre
Geneva, 09 July, 2013
“There are parallels between the evolution of CUTS and
the growth of the multilateral trading system over the last
thirty years, in their quest to develop truly global organisations
that are open to organic growth, reflecting the ever-changing
global economy” said Pascal Lamy, Director General of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) today at the CUTS 30th
Anniversary Event held at the margins of the fourth global
review of Aid for Trade.
Mr Lamy gave an account of the major evolutions of the
multilateral trading system over the past three decades,
including a number of significant shifts in the nature of trade,
in the scope of trade negotiations and changes in the negotiating
dynamics between trading nations.
“Today, nobody would think that an agreement between
the quad of the 80’s would be sufficient to conclude a deal.
The LDC group has gained a lot of power and they now have
common and well-researched positions which have helped to
place their agenda at the fore of negotiations.”
CUTS being one of the most prominent global advocates
of the relationship between trade and competition law and
policy, and public welfare, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary
General of UNCTAD, the other speaker, stressed that

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emerging markets which have successfully adopted the market
economy did so concurrently with the creation of strong
competition regimes.
Both Lamy and Supachai spoke about CUTS and the
cooperation that it has enjoyed by the WTO and UNCTAD
and the joint activities that have been conducted in seeking
fair and free trade.
In his introductory remarks, Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary
General of CUTS explained that the 30th anniversary lectures
as today’s are being organised in several global capitals before
introducing a short film giving an account of CUTS’ history
since its modest beginnings in Rajasthan, India. (http://
www.youtube.com/)
The event was chaired by Frederic Jenny, Professor of
Economics at ESSEC Business School, Paris, who recalled that
competition rules were first introduced into trade agreements
before becoming an international issue in their own right.
In the Q&A session, participants raised many interesting
questions, including the need for international competition
rules, better policy coherence among international
organisations to promote multilateralism, and that the system
needs to be focused on creating jobs and thus reducing poverty.

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4. Trading System Needs to Improve and
Link Better with Other Parts of Global
Economic Governance
London, 17 July, 2013
“Globalisation saw little reversal during the recent crisis
mainly because of WTO, the role of social safety nets and the
success of emerging economies in global trade, among others”
said Martin Wolf, Chief Economic Commentator, Financial
Times at the 5th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture at London
on 15th July on the topic “The Future of Global Trade Policy”.
The well attended lecture was hosted by the
Commonwealth Secretariat and chaired by Kamalesh Sharma,
Secretary General, Commonwealth Secretariat, and Financial
Times as the media partner. Justine Greening, UK’s Secretary
of State for International Development spoke at the event,
while Professors Jim Rollo and Alan Winters commented on
Wolf’s lecture.
Wolf, while appreciating the role of CUTS’s admirable work
in the trade area, felt that the trading system is facing many
challenges both from the inside and outside. The main
challenges from outside are the imbalances between trade and
exchange rates, climate change and inequality that is corroding
the political base in favour of trade in developed countries.
He stated that while these are important issues, WTO is not
the right place to address them.
Speaking at the event, Justine Greening congratulated CUTS
on completing its first 30 years, during which it has consistently

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made the case for free trade, combined with competition and
consumer welfare, leading to economic democracy. She also
highlighted the long standing productive relationship between
DFID and CUTS.
Greening stated that the UK government and DFID firmly
believe that trade will play a key role in poverty reduction and
the developing countries should be helped to reap the benefits
of free and fair trade.
According to Greening, the main reasons for many
developing countries not trading enough include: lack of access
to markets; lack of enabling environment, particularly poor
infrastructure and weak regulatory system; and not being able
to be part of global value chains, that can create more and
better jobs. She reiterated UK’s commitment to delivering an
agreement on trade facilitation at the 9th WTO ministerial
conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia in December-2013.
Wolf appreciated the focus of CUTS in trade, competition,
consumer welfare and building LDCs supply capacities. He
believed that the poor will become even further marginalised
without a robust and fair multilateral trading system.
According to Wolf, the trading system as represented by
WTO is faced with several internal challenges, namely
successful conclusion of Doha round that will restore
legitimacy and relevance of the multilateral trading system and
secondly the mega regional trade and investment agreements,
i.e. trans-atlantic and trans-pacific, partnerships.
Wolf expressed doubts if the negotiations of these megaregional trade and investment agreements would succeed. But
it would be unfortunate if these negotiations are done without
China and other emerging economies. Therefore, Wolf strongly
advocated that these should be open to any WTO member
who wishes to join later.
Alan Winters in his comments reinforced and expanded
on several points made by Wolf. He believed that the 2008

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economic crisis did not lead to high levels of protectionism as
the world had a lot more macro-economic flexibility unlike in
the 1930s. Winters added, that it was too early to declare
victory as we have not seen the end of the crisis and
governments may yet succumb to pressures for protectionist
measures.
He considered smooth integration of China as the biggest
internal challenge facing the multilateral trading system. This
should not be based on the terms set by the west. Rather the
trading system has to change to accommodate the interests of
emerging economies including China and India that are different
from those of the west.
Jim Rollo recalling the enthusiasm and appreciation of
Pradeep Mehta founder and Secretary General of CUTS said
that it never wanes and the result in terms of the expansion
and success of CUTS is in front of us.
While commenting on the lecture by Wolf, Rollo stated
that the WTO is in more trouble than we were willing to
admit. He was also worried that the state capitalism was back
in business witnessed by bail outs to auto companies and the
fact that most of China’s big exporters are stated owned. He
also lamented the fact that the private sector has exhibited a
lack of interest in the WTO and Doha round.
In the ensuing discussions several questions and comments
were made relating to the success of WTO in many of its
functions including the dispute settlement, role and
responsibilities and performance of China in WTO, issues of
interests to developing countries other than China and other
emerging economies, i.e. Sub-Saharan Africa, LDCs and small
states.
Another interesting debate was around the importance of
trade finance for the trade performance of small developing
countries, relationship of the financial sector with the real
sector and the role of trade in the use and exploitation of

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natural resources. One participant raised the issue of
consumers being ignored in the debate, while panelists did
respond that higher trade-led growth does lead to higher
consumer welfare.
Pradeep Mehta stated that consumers are the raison de’etre
of all economic activity and spoke about a recent CUTS study
about the cost of economic non-cooperation in South Asia
which costs the regional economies US$3bn. Since the study
was published, governments have woken up which is evident
in rising intra-regional trade.
Mehta admitted that most of the discourse in the past had
assumed that consumer interest would be advanced when trade
volumes rise, but were not explicit in approaching trade
liberalization through the lens of consumer welfare and thus
positioning the debate domestically for consumers to support.
He also stressed the need for strong flanking policies, such
as health, education, skills, regulatory regimes etc., to ensure
that the benefits of trade openness reach all segments of the
society. According to him, coherence in policies at the domestic
level and among institutions at the international level etc were
needed to face the challenges. This was also a main conclusion
of the DG WTO’s High Level Panel on the Future of Trade of
which he was a member.
In his vote of thanks, Cyrus Rustomjee, Director, Economic
Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat remarked
that the event was very successful and useful for their own
work on trade policy. He spoke about a recent ComSec paper:
“Right to Trade” by Joseph Stiglitz which has laid out how
small and vulnerable economies can benefit from the
multilateral trading system.
Rustomjee stated that they will continue to devote their
assistance to help its member developing countries, particularly
small states, for their participation in the trading system
through high-quality research and capacity building
workshops.

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5. India needs to have a cognitive and
accommodative communication with
China, says Khurshid
New Delhi, August 15, 2013
The External Affairs Minister, Salman Khurshid, has said
that India needs to have a cognitive and accommodative
conversation with China and called for an integrated approach
towards engaging Asian countries to face the various
economic, political and social challenges. Delivering the CUTS
30th Anniversary Lecture on ‘India’s Economic Integration
with Asia,’ Mr. Khurshid said the conversation should be in a
voice which has strength, effectiveness, confidence and belief
and not a meek voice. “The conversation should be
accommodative from time to time with domestic need. India
and China would work together one day but not today, as it’s
too early,” he remarked.
He said India was already exploring in South China Sea
where it had commercial contracts with Vietnam and other
countries of the region. “We are not involved in a dispute in
South China Sea. We believe that it should be settled bilaterally
between countries which have different points of view. It
should be done peacefully and within the four corners of the
code of conduct that ASEAN is developing for South China
Sea,” he said.
The External Affairs Minister acknowledged that given the
criticality of integration of India with Asian countries, the
approach that we take to further the economic integration

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and to face the various economic, political and social challenges
to bring the nation together, is extremely important. “IndoPacific region was one of the under-explored areas to be
worked upon. Also, there was a need for India to provide
links with Central Asia. TAPI gas pipeline as one of the most
forward looking link of India with Central Asia,” he stated.
While stressing the importance of trilateral highway
between India, Myanmar and Thailand, Mr. Khurshid said
that linking with countries conceptually was more important
than linking physically. “There was a need to do away with
the traditional way of thinking and start thinking out-of-thebox.”
Those who also spoke on the occasion included Ajay
Chibber, Director General, Independent Evaluation and former
Assistant Secretary General, UN; Rajiv Kumar, Senior Fellow,
Centre for Policy Research. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, MP,
chaired the session.
Mr. Chibber agreed with Mr. Khurshid on importance of
India-Turkey and India-China relationships and highlighted
the importance of Myanmar as a bridge between India and
China. He was hopeful that 21{+s}{+t}century like the
19{+t}{+h}century will again be the Asian century with Asia
contributing 60-70 per cent to the global economy.
Mr. Kumar asserted that India must show power of its
example to be successful and there is a strong need for regional
cooperation in South Asia than regional integration. He
highlighted that unless there will be economic integration
within India, economic integration with Asia will not move
ahead.
Pradeep Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International,
highlighted the need for effective implementation of Article
307 of the Constitution talking about economic integration
within India and expressed hope and expectation to continue
working towards economic integration with Asia and Africa.

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6. Regional integration is an imperative
for sustainable development and
the time is now!
Nairobi, August 19, 2013
“Regional integration is one critical factor in efforts to
achieve sustainable development in East Africa. This
sustainability does not mean the maintenance of the status
quo but should look at the long term development needs of
the region. The region should integrate because it is the right
thing to do at this time”, said Ambassador Richard Sezibera,
the Secretary General of East African Community (EAC).
Dr Sezibara was delivering the 7th CUTS 30th Anniversary
Lecture on the theme: “Regional Integration for Sustainable
Development in East African Community” at Nairobi
yesterday.
The event was chaired by Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, incoming
Secretary General of UNCTAD, which included discussants:
Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International;
Frank Maetsart CEO of Trade Mark East Africa; Mr. Lamin
Manneh, Chief Regional Integration Officer from African
Development Bank and Prof. Jasper Okelo, WTO Chair, School
of Economics, University of Nairobi. The event included over
250 participants from the civil society; government; diplomats;
academia; research institutions; private sector; media and
development partners.
“CUTS has done very useful work on regional integration
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networking and also partnered with the EAC Secretariat in
its projects on trade, climate change and food security” said
Dr Sezibara. “We value this relationship highly and look
forward to more cooperation”.
Dr Kituyi in his opening remarks inter alia spoke about the
need for developing countries to fashion the development
narrative, rather than be guided to what comes from
elsewhere. He also stressed on regional integration as a building
block for the multilateral system.
“Examining the history of Africa over the centuries, there
has always been the struggle for sovereignty and state building
after independence, yet in spite of those challenges, the
continent has been able to navigate. Currently, we are
experiencing the rise of a new Africa which is dynamic, vibrant,
sure of its destiny and continues to fine and refine its narrative.
However, Africa still has unfinished agenda, which is
integrating and mobilizing her people to fully achieve the
narrative that is being refined” asserted Dr Sezibara.
Integration of markets is crucial for trade, commerce and
industrialization. East Africa, with an estimated population
of 133 million people and still growing, presents a huge market
opportunity that attracts investments as noted by Mr Lamin
Manneh of the African Development Bank.
Besides, no country has developed by turning inward and
keeping the others out. Those that did were forced to change.
It can therefore be concluded that international trade is a
prerequisite for development. “If you cannot trade with your
neighbour, you will trade your neighbour” said Sezibera,
referring to East Africa during the colonial times, which
included slave trade.
On progress in the integration process, the protocol for a
monetary union is to be signed in September then the journey
to political federation begins, said Dr Sezibara. “This however
calls for harmonization of monetary policies, regulation and

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discipline in public sector debt so that partner states are not
exposed to a similar crisis like the recent one in the Eurozone”.
Other areas where cooperation has been identified is
harmonization in the sharing of natural resources in a
sustainable manner, multilateral negotiations in the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) and United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as
cooperation on security and defense.
On the above issues, Dr Kituyi stressed the importance of
building capacity for African negotiators to effectively engage
in these processes from a regional perspective.
EAC intends to reach middle income status within this
generation; this is possible but not with balkanized states and
it explains the EAC rational integration, which takes a share
of 3 of the top 6 fastest growing economies in the world, all in
Africa.
Frank Maetsart noted that one of the basics is raising
competitiveness for trade and tackling the inefficiencies at the
ports as well as other infrastructural bottlenecks. Jasper Okelo
strengthened this by arguing that “regional integration is not
for debate, we either have it or forget about development”.
Finally, cultural homogeneity is not a prerequisite for
regional integration; rather it is the will, determination and
enactment of the right policies which spurs integration. A good
example is India, said Pradeep Mehta, Secretary General of
CUTS International; “India is multilingual, multiracial, multireligious, multicultural and has managed to hold on together
as a country and achieve much, in terms of development.
Therefore, the different cultures in East Africa should not be
seen as an obstacle to integration”.
“India has had a long term political relationship with most
countries in Africa over the years, which was built up around
the common legacy of colonialism. She will continue to deepen
her relationship with Africa which includes providing soft skills

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in many areas of governance, and CUTS too will play an
important role in this effort”, said Mehta.
“Our next two public lectures are also designed on regional
integration in Africa. Besides, CUTS is opening its third centre
in Accra this month which will be inaugurated by Ms Hanna
Tetteh, Ghana’s Foreign and Regional Integration Minister
which includes her lecture on regional integration in West
Africa”, said Mehta.
In his vote of thanks, Clement Onyango, Director of CUTS
Nairobi Centre said that CUTS works as a complement to
efforts being made by governments and intergovernmental
organisations rather than as a competitor.

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7. “Short Term Pain Leads to
Long Term Gain”: Tetteh
Accra, August 27, 2013
“The short term pain that we have to bear in our bid to
overcome the challenges of regional integration would lead to
long term gain for everyone,” said Hanna S. Tetteh, the
Ghanaian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional
Integration.
“We welcome the opening of the CUTS Centre in Accra
and look forward to its active participation in providing
research support to Ghana and the West African region on
critical economic policy issues” said Madam Tetteh. “We are
aware of the distinguished work of CUTS and I have personally
interacted with them during my earlier position as Trade &
Industries Minister of Ghana”.
“CUTS has developed a successful methodology of
connecting grassroots to the policy makers especially through
applied research, advocacy and networking” said the Minister.
“We value this experience and look forward to more
cooperation”.
Madam Tetteh was delivering the 8th CUTS 30th
Anniversary Lecture here on Monday 26th August on the
theme: “Regional Integration as Tool for Poverty Reduction
in West Africa” and the inaugural ceremony of CUTS Centre
at Accra.
The event was held in association with Institute of Statistical,
Social and Economic Research (ISSER), a partner of CUTS in
Ghana. Over 150 people from the policy community including

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many diplomats, academia, private sector, civil society and
media participated.
“Regional integration in West Africa has contributed
somewhat to poverty reduction though the data to support
this position is not easily available”, asserted Madam Tetteh.
“For sure, ECOWAS is celebrated within and outside
Africa as one of the most innovative and advanced among the
continent’s regional economic communities.
“This is particularly in the areas of conflict prevention,
management and peacekeeping which are prerequisites for
socio-economic development but more as an example of
successful political rather than economic cooperation.
“The establishment of the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation
Scheme (ETLS) is another critical project in the Community’s
drive to promote and consolidate economic integration in West
Africa, and thus reduce poverty among its people. The Scheme
is anchored on the complete removal of all trade barriers in
the region, and the standardisation of all custom duties and
taxes of equivalent effect, with the view to enhancing intraregional trade,” she added.
She also mentioned the implementation of the joint border
port arrangements which should make it less cumbersome to
deal with the administrative bureaucracies at the borders,
agreeing on the Common External Tariff which will hopefully
take place in October this year in Dakar, should make it easier
to do business with the region and the world.
The event was chaired by Prof Ernest Aryeetey, the Vice
Chancellor of University of Ghana. The discussants included:
Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS International; Dr.
Toga Gayewea McIntosh, Vice President, ECOWAS and Mr.
Ishmael Yamson, Board Chair of Standard Chartered Bank
(Ghana).
Professor Aryeetey in his opening remarks said regional
integration will lead to competition which in turn will drive

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down prices meaning new jobs and additional incomes for
consumers. He added that “regional integration is the wave
of the future. It will not solve all of our problems, but we are
convinced that the gains to winners far exceeds the losses to
losers”.
Contributing on the subject, Ishmael E. Yamson, Chairman,
Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana) said: “We must have vision
and ambition for the ECOWAS sub region. We must look at
the larger 300 million market of people. Investments will
pursue such large market opportunities. Private sector must
be encouraged to actively participate in the Regional
Integration efforts.”
He added that “more needs to be done to harmonise the
legal and regulatory framework for the ECOWAS region
especially the two divergent systems derived from Britain and
France that exits in the region.”
“I see regional integration as a tool, not just a strategy for
fixing the problems and challenges of the region. It should
become ECOWAS of the people of West Africa. The
ECOWAS as a vehicle is being fixed with a tool box. Tools
are not only used to solve problems, but are used to add value
to a product or process, such should be our approach to adding
value to ECOWAS”, said Dr. Toga Gayewea McIntosh, Vice
President, ECOWAS. “We need to study the costs of nonintegration for which we will establish a working group”.
“We had done a study on the costs of economic noncooperation in South Asia two years ago which showed gain
of US$2bn to consumers if tariffs were rationalized. This could
result in 20mn new jobs and substantial lowering of consumer
costs. We will be happy to do a similar study for the ECOWAS
region, where we have many research partners”, said Mr
Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General of CUTS International.
“Through establishing its centre in Accra, CUTS aims to
strengthen its approach of promoting South-South Cooperation

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in the whole of Sub Saharan Africa, other than sharing our
knowledge and skills in Ghana and the West Africa region.
“India is cooperating with most countries in Africa and it
has a shared legacy of colonialism, and its cooperation will
continue in the area of skill building and soft infrastructure.
At CUTS, we are working with the Government of India in
the Indo-Africa Cooperation Framework. Furthermore,
through the framework of trilateral development cooperation,
we are also working with several western bilateral donors”,
said Mr Mehta in his closing remarks.
CUTS Assistant Director, Kshitiz Sharma proposed the vote
of thanks and said that our work is complimentary to
governments and intergovernmental organisations. “We bring
in the critical dimension of civil society participation in policy
making and immersion which leads to sustainable solutions”.

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8. China and India to Outgrow USA in
Times to Come: Mohan
Washington DC, September 24, 2013
“By 2030, China’s economy and by 2060, India’s economy
could be much larger than the economy of United States, if
one goes by current projections. The rate of change that has
been predicted, if it does come around, it would be quite
dramatic in the next 20 years. These changes do indicate that
changes at the level of global governance to have to happen,
for example the emergence of G-20 countries, which is more
participatory” said Rakesh Mohan, Executive Director, IMF,
while delivering the 9th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture at
Washington DC yesterday.
In his welcome remarks, CUTS Secretary General, Pradeep
S Mehta, said that this lecture series are being organized around
the world by CUTS as it is an international NGO pursuing
economic equality and social justice within and across borders.
The twin purpose of this series is to acquaint people about its
work and for it to draw fresh ideas for its own work agenda
for the next twenty years. Its work is around three verticals:
trade, regulation and governance, which it is pursuing in the
developing world through its own presence in Asia and Africa.
Also speaking at the occasion were Bill Kovacic, Professor,
George Washington University and Co-Host of the event,
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, Consulting Editor of The
Times of India Group and Edward Luce, Chief US
Commentator, Financial Times. Nirupama Menon Rao, India’s
Ambassador to USA chaired the session.

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“The key issue to ponder over is what will happen in the
future, given the big changes that are taking place with the
emergence of different institutions in the world and whether
the governance in multilateral institutions were to change with
more even representation with economic weight or they will
remain US/EU dominated” said Dr Mohan.
“Thus, the question that arises is that in some ways if you
have one top dog who governs, might lead to more stability as
compared to 4-5 top dogs trying to compete with one another
on how to govern global situation, which goes beyond just
economics. But, during the next 5-10 years we are going to
see changes, that we have not seen since a long time”.
Nirupama Menon Rao, India’s Ambassador to USA briefly
spoke about the commitment of the Indian government towards
ensuring inclusive growth and to ensure that fruits of growth
and progress are shared with large sections of our population,
which is the mantra of the day.
Mrs Rao reflected on the various steps being taken by the
Indian Government, such as Food Security initiative, rural
employment guarantee scheme, which provides right based
employment to the people, Right to Information Act, which
creates legal obligation on the government to share information
on how it work with the people and so on.
She acknowledged the important contribution being made
by CUTS in order to inform policymakers at the highest level
in government and that it has truly conveyed the message of
South-South Cooperation with its presence in many countries
and that it should continue to grow to promote equity and
social justice across borders.
Bill Kovacic, Professor, George Washington University,
spoke about the need for capacity building in the new
competition systems and touched upon the seminal
contribution of CUTS on this subject through its 7Up initiative

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i.e. Bottom Up Approach in over 30 countries in Africa and
Asia.
Prof Kovacic emphasised on the importance of creating the
right team and getting the right people to head a competition
agency, who have some experience of having worked in the
private sector in order to understand how they function,
without this important understanding the agency would be in
some sort of a deficit. Thus, recruitment of the right people
and the right level is one of the key ingredients to ensure
success of the institution.
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar briefly spoke about the
transition from the days between MRTPC to the present
Competition Act in India. He did mention that there was a
time during the MRTPC era, government control was the key
and being big was bad. One of the key changes in the present
Competition Act, being big is not bad but its abuse is bad.
Towards the end, reacting to the issue of change in global
economic calculus, he did mention that it is difficult to discount
US but the powers of EU/US are diminishing relatively. He
emphasised that the original idea that the dominant force is
going to be EU or US in the world is getting diluted and we
are moving towards a multi-polar world.
Edward Luce, Chief US Commentator, FT drew the
attention of the audience towards the formative years when
CUTS came into existence, which was an era of license raj,
1991 crisis, etc, thus the emergence of CUTS as a unique promarket organization, was a breath of fresh air. He emphasised
that the change in global economic geometry is more of a
problem for US, as compared to China and/or India, as because
it is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
There was a lively Q&A session, when numerous micro
and macro issues were raised by the over 100 participants in
the hall. Marking an end to the session, Pradeep Mehta in his
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ordination on the vast issues that CUTS and other organisations
are working on, which is important. He referred to the Paris
Declaration, which is a soft law and requires the donor to coordinate, which is being ignored.
Udai Mehta, Associate Director, CUTS proposed a vote of
thanks at the end and handed out mementos to all the speakers.

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9. Multilateral Trading System is Dead:
Bhagwati
New York, September 27, 2013
“The multilateral trading system is dead and the Doha round
is in trouble largely because of lack of US leadership” said
Jagdish Bhagwati, University Professor, Columbia University,
while delivering the 10th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture at
New York.
According to Bhagwati, the Doha Lite deal being attempted
in Bali, is like a decaf and light coffee and we are trying to
save the Doha round, which is similar to the steps taken to
save the Cancun round on climate change issues.
He said that the multilateral negotiations are crippled and
they received another blow by the formations of the regional
and bilateral deals. These are all very big deals—they’re not
small bilateral deals that privilege a small number of countries
and discriminate against everyone else. Their preference areas
are very large, and they overlap. And they’re all following a
similar model in terms of a comprehensive trade agenda,
though they have different regional perspectives.
“Let us make sure that we don’t harm the weakest among
us in the trading system, because the countries that are left
out of these super-regional arrangements are the African
countries, a few Asian countries, and some Latin American
countries” he said. “Thus, the important question to be
pondered over is that the preferentials, such as Trans Pacific
and Trans Atlantic, are the only game in town and how does
it impact the WTO”.

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Also speaking on the occasion were Eleanor M Fox,
Professor, New York University School of Law; Ken Davies,
Vice Dean and Professor, New York University School of Law;
and Merit E Janow, Dean, Columbia School of International
and Public Affairs chaired the session. Trevor Morrison, Dean,
New York University, School of Law; Peter Henry, Dean,
Leonard N Stern, School of Business, New York University
welcomed all the speakers and guests at the well-attended
event.
Professor Fox briefly spoke about the importance of
competition policy and law on development. According to her,
competition law and policy is one among several links in the
chain, all necessary links, to empower the less and least well
off. It empowers the institutions to knock down barriers and
remove restraints which impede the opportunities to the poor.
She referred to the work undertaken by CUTS through the
7Up initiative i.e. Bottom Up Approach and mentioned about
the various reports that have been produced which provide
evidence from across the globe on how anti-competitive
barriers are created, so as to deprive the common consumers
and producers from participating in the economy.
“Barriers can be created by various means and mechanisms,
such as cartelization, public and private restraints and thus, it
is important to empower the institutions to tackle such
barriers. This, is one the key roles played by Competition
Policy, which empowers people and institutions to access and
benefit from economic opportunities, by bringing down such
barriers” she emphasised.
Professor spoke at length regarding the important role that
can be played by competition policy. One important aspect
that she touched upon was that well-functioning markets are
important for pro-poor growth. Market failure hurts the poor
disproportionately and the poor may be disadvantaged by the
terms on which they participate in markets. Thus, programmes

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are needed to ensure that markets that matter for their
livelihoods work better for the poor and policies, such as
Competition Policy to tackle market failure should be aimed
at increasing economic capabilities of the poor.
Kevin Davis briefly spoke about the importance of tackling
corruption. He emphasised that it is extremely important for
organisations such as CUTS to be directly involved in issues
pertaining to corruption. Given the engagement of CUTS with
policymakers and at the grassroots, the organisation is well
placed to take on corruption related issues, as it requires
mobilization of people at the ground level and having the reach
to the policymakers at the top.
He highlighted some of the actions being taken at an
international level, with the passing of the Anti-Bribery Law
in the UK, followed by a large number of countries, OECD’s
efforts, International Anti-Money laundering law, UN
Convention on Corruption etc.
Davis stressed on the need to work on corruption issues,
as because investors use indicators such as global indicators
for corruption, when taking decisions on whether to invest in
a country or not. Thus, it is important to take cognizance of
such issues and there is the need to think on what one can do
about the same.
There was a lively Q&A session, when numerous micro
and macro issues were raised by the over 80 participants in
the hall. One interesting question was raised on how climate
change issues can be dealt with under the competition policy
rubric. In response, Pradeep Mehta pointed out that
competition not only promotes good governance but also
innovation which leads to a reduced burden on environment,
as firms innovate to produce goods and services at the lowest
costs. “We are engaged in case studies to show the linkage
between competition policy and climate change”.

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Professor Merit Janow, in the chair’s summary, recalled
her old association with CUTS and said that the event which
has featured three eminent speakers on various governance
aspects of developing countries will help take the CUTS agenda
forward.
Marking an end to the session, Mehta in his remarks
highlighted the important work being undertaken by CUTS in
the areas of trade, regulation and governance, which will
continue to guide the organisation’s agenda over the future.

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10. Neighbours and boundaries cannot be
changed, but mind sets will need to be
changed: Khurram Dastagir Khan
Islamabad, December 11, 2013
“Neighbours and boundaries cannot be changed, but mind
sets will need to be changed”, said Mr. Khurram Dastagir
Khan, Minister of State for Commerce and Textile Industry,
Pakistan.
He was speaking at the 11th CUTS 30th Anniversary
Lecture event organised by CUTS International and Sustainable
Development Policy Institute here today (http://www.cutsinternational.org/30thAnniversaryLectures/).
“Global integration is extremely important in order to
strengthen trade relations among countries. Operationalization
of SAFTA was a limited success story for India and Pakistan,
as inter-regional trade has not been effective though there is
huge potential, said Mr Khan. “Thus, we would need to
recognise liberalisation of trade among SAFTA countries,
ensure more market access and create level playing field among
the nations”.
Mr Khan emphasised that we need to have consistent and
sustainable relation to get over with poverty in the region.
Bilateral trade equation is complex and any untoward incident
can derail the process of dialogue. The need of the hour is for
relations between India and Pakistan to be uninterruptable.
He said that one question which is often asked by
stakeholders in Pakistan i.e. will expansion of trade with India
benefit to Pakistan or endanger its domestic industries.

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According to Mr. Khan, the trade between India and
Pakistan is a win-win situation for both the countries, as
supported by studies done undertaken by CUTS and SDPI.
He shared with the audience that even a 10% share of
access to markets in India will double the market boom in
Pakistan. He emphasised that we cannot have a favourable
trade balance with all countries and he acknowledged that we
do have a negative trade balance with India.
Khan said that it was India who granted MFN to Pakistan
in 1996, however, instead of trade rising between the countries,
our experience has been the opposite. He emphasised that it
is imperative that India must reduce the non-tariff barriers
and provide a level playing field. What we want is to have a
non-discriminatory access to both countries’ economies.
“It is a well-known fact that bilateral trade between India
and Pakistan is currently far below what it ideally should be.
There is ample literary evidence available on the
underutilization of trade opportunities that exists between
India and Pakistan” said by Mr. Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary
General, CUTS International.
While both countries have been successful in bringing forth
trade reforms that advanced their respective levels of trade
integration with other trading partners, leaders of both
countries have been apprehensive about exploring trade with
each other, the main reason being a longstanding miscalculation
of the net of economic gains and political losses out of trade.
Mehta further mentioned, CUTS studies have shown that
facilitating trade in these products can easily triple the current
volume of bilateral trade and take to about US$12bn per
annum. The benefits to consumers and producers in both
countries owing to enhanced bilateral trade would be manifold.
In conclusion, Mr Mehta mentioned that it is heartening
to note that the track 2 level efforts that we have been carrying
forward with partner organizations like SDPI and a large

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number of stakeholders from both countries are gaining
traction.
Our effort has been one of the important ingredients in
keeping alive the bilateral dialogue process. We need to expand
the scope and reach of the ongoing dialogues by including and
participating in a wider set of stakeholders in the dialogues.
One of the tools that we have in mind is that of civil-military
dialogues on areas of bilateral economic cooperation including
trade.
Also speaking on the occasion were Mr. Aqdas Ali Kazmi,
Former Joint Chief Economist, Planning Commission of
Pakistan; Mr. Amin Hashwani, Hashwani Group, Karachi;
Mr. Shaban Khalid, President, Islamabad Chamber of
Commerce and Industries, Islamabad and Dr T C A Raghavan,
High Commissioner of India to Pakistan, who Chaired the
session.
Dr Raghavan briefly spoke about the importance of Pakistan
and India relationship and the fact that they both face nearly
the same challenges. Thus, it important for effective
collaboration between India and Pakistan, as one can learn
from other and he was of the opinion that such collaborations
would be fruitful.
According to Dr Raghavan, there are two key issues one
needs to focus on i.e. Policy i.e. how do we move towards a
more stable trade relationship and challenges pertaining to
infrastructure. He emphasised on the need for longer trading
hours, opening of more border crossing points and that all
trading points should be open for all trading items between
the countries.
Dr Hashwani, laid emphasis on the need to privatise the
peace process. According to him, businesses don’t have
baggage and they can be effective problem solvers. Thus, the
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peace process and they should be part of the decision making
process.
Towards the end, he emphasised that there is need to
connect emotionally, if we want nations to come together.
He suggested using cricket as a platform to ensure better
integration among the countries and suggested formation of a
regional team (India and Pakistan players) and rest of the world.
Mr. Shaban Khalid, mentioned that the business community
is excited about the future. He drew the attention of the
audience on the Negative and Positive List and provided an
example i.e. steel is being imported into Pakistan from India
via Dubai, which increases the cost of the product. Thus, there
is a need to advocate for review of negative and positive list
between the countries.
Mr Khalid also emphasised on the need for harmonisation
of quality standards. He mentioned that we have different
quality standards in both countries, which has led to a lot of
problem. He gave the example of cement from Pakistan lying
on Indian borders because of certification issues.
The Minister, Mr Khan also released a CUTS publication:
“Building Peace through Trade-The Future of India-Pakistan
Trade & Economic Relations”.
There was a lively Q&A session, when numerous micro
and macro issues were raised by the over 100 participants in
the hall.

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11. Restructure the Planning
Commission: Yashwant Sinha
New Delhi, December 19, 2013
”The Planning Commission is the biggest obstacle in the
path of federalism. It should be restructured to do perspective
planning and implementation without being empowered to
micro manage the states’ financing and functioning, which is
the task of the Finance Ministry”, said opposition leader,
Yashwant Sinha.
Mr Sinha was speaking at the 12th CUTS 30th Anniversary
Thought Leadership Lecture on December 18, 2013, in New
Delhi, on the topic “Fiscal Federalism: The Unequal Balance”.
(www.cuts-international.org/30thanniversarylectures).
Mr Sinha added that India is a union of states and not a
federation, for which several provisions in the Constitution
exist, which provides a unitary character. “We are gradually
moving towards federalism considering the fact that many
regional parties are ruling in states”.
Mr. Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General, CUTS, welcomed
the guests by questioning the premise if the federalism practiced
in India was true federalism. He mentioned that the
Constitution of India does not refer to the role of Centre/
Central Government, but to the Union.
Chairing the lecture event, Mr. N. K. Singh, MP, set the
tone by stating that the issue was contemporary as well as
complex, and sets up a challenge between economic
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He mentioned that federal practices have not kept pace
with changing dynamics and economic realities of the country.
There was no credible and viable mechanism at present, for
coordination between states and central government. “The
Interstate Council is defunct”.
In his speech, Mr. Sinha touched upon the issues of
differences between federalism and decentralisation, the
changing political scenario with the emergence of regional
political parties, role and utility of Planning Commission of
India, the pending Goods and Services Tax, and the core issue
of centre-state and inter-state relationship which is at the heart
of the subject of fiscal federalism.
He noted that the Planning Commission was created by an
executive order and has been continuing without any
constitutional or statutory backing, but is playing a significant
role in devolution of funds to states.
Mr Sinha was critical of the role of the Planning Commission
in reviewing the gross budgetary support and the lack of
accountability of the Planning Commission to the Parliament.
In addition, he raised concerns about the complex
constitutional amendment bill on Goods and Service Tax
wherein the potential problems of central government in its
implementation, have not been adequately highlighted.
Cooperative federalism is the way forward
Mr. Sinha further mentioned that what India truly needed
was cooperative federalism i.e. co-option of state governments
in policy making, and need for greater cooperation between
central and state governments in critical areas, including
security.
The already existing empowered committee of finance
ministers of various state governments on GST has been a
successful experiment in this regard. The same approach can
be taken for other subjects as well, such as a committee of
state home ministers to deal with security matters. On the

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issue of performance on fiscal deficit, he was of the opinion
that states have performed much better than the central
government.
Dr. Bhal Chandra Mungekar, MP, in his speech, said that
India is a natural federation considering the plurality of cultures,
language, religion etc. He stressed upon the need to restructure
the FRBM Act and the need for more autonomy of the states.
He agreed with most of what Mr Sinha said.
Both parliamentarians Dr Mungekar and Mr N. K. Singh,
having been members of the Planning Commission, too
expressed their reservations about the functioning of the Plan
body and suggested that it should be wound up.
The addresses were followed by a lively question and
answer session. The audience included parliamentarians,
Messrs V.P. Singh and Rangasayee Ramkrishna, amongst other
eminent citizens, economists and media personnel. On a query
of the steps needed to bring back India to growth trajectory,
Mr. Sinha responded that government should create an
environment to enable reduction in interest rates and ensure
speedy clearances of pending projects, which are currently in
the range of Rs. 138,000 crores.
Mr Mehta suggested that as a seed to cooperative federalism,
mainstream political parties should also explore a grand
coalition in forming a stable government, such as in Delhi State,
as practiced in Germany, whereby the legislature can function
without going in for fresh elections.
The meeting also issued a fresh call for scrapping the APMC
Act, and to establish an empowered committee of state
agriculture ministers to review the same.
The panel wholeheartedly echoed the need of cooperative
federalism in India, emphasised that the same was feasible,
and the need to rechristen the Planning Commission of India,
as Department of Planning and Cooperation, as it has outlived
its utility in its present form.

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12. The centralised state everywhere has
lost a great deal of legitimacy: Bardhan
Kolkata, December 24, 2013
‘After its many failures, the centralized state everywhere
has lost a great deal of legitimacy’, said Dr.Pranab Bardhan,
Professor of Economics at the University of California,
Berkeley, while delivering the 13th CUTS 30th Anniversary
Lecture in Kolkata yesterday. (www.cuts-international.org/
30thanniversarylectures).
According to Bardhan, decentralization is widely believed
to promise a range of benefits, particularly in making
governance more responsive and efficient in meeting local
needs and preferences.
“A major dilemma of governance institutions in a developing
country is a trade-off between autonomy (from populist
pressures) and accountability, that is inevitably involved in
most governance, including in the centralization vs.
decentralization debate” Bardhan averred.
On the one hand, one needs arms-length institutions with
credible commitment to insulate the system from political
interventions, from special interest groups and partisan or
faction politics. On the other hand, too much insulation often
means too little accountability. This leads to high-handed
arbitrary centralized governance, leading to abuses and waste.
Dr Bardhan further said that in one important sense Indian
local elections are not fully democratic, making local
accountability problematic. Political polarization, as in West
Bengal, makes things worse, with opposition politicians usually

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not participating in the panchayat decisions as well as
monitoring processes, as originally envisaged.
Welcoming the guests Mr. Pradeep Mehta, Secretary
General, CUTS International, said that governance is one of
the issues that CUTS has been working since its inception and
thus this subject has been chosen as the topic of discussion
for the lecture. Decentralisation in governance is very essential
for a democracy to function properly and welfare of people
can be promoted, Mr. Mehta asserted.
Chairing the lecture event, Dr Ajay Chhibber, Director
General, Independent Evaluation Office, stated that
decentralisation is yet to be achieved in India. Comparing India
with China, he said that though China is not a democratic
country, but has a more decentralised and accountable
government. The delivery of service at local level is one of the
main deciding factors in the recent elections in India, he said.
M. N. Roy, former Member, Expert Committee on
Leveraging Panchayati Raj and TR Raghunandan, Member
said that governance means how the government performs
and how the citizens choose their government. Thus citizens
are equally responsible in running a transparent government
by electing the right people.
The second panellist, Mr T. R. Raghunandan, Member of
the West Bengal Committee on Panchayati Raj, said that the
young population in India are going to be the deciding voters
in the coming elections and so they need to governed in the
right direction.
More than 100 people attended the event which comprised
of academicians, scholars, media persons and others.
Mr. B. G. Roy, President, Calcutta Citizens’ Initiative (the
partner for the event), in his welcome remarks said that
decentralisation in governance system has gained a lot of
importance in the last few years and the subject of discussion
has immense importance now. Dr. Keya Ghosh, Director,
CUTS International extended vote of thanks.

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13. Economic Governance Calls for
Statesmanship in India: Rajiv Lall
Mumbai, January 22, 2014
“Economic Governance cannot be seen in isolation and
would need to go hand in glove with political governance”,
said Dr. Rajiv Lall, Executive Chairman, IDFC Ltd while
delivering the 14th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture in Mumbai
yesterday
While discussing political governance, he opined that India
has done remarkably well in so far as democracy, which has
thrived over the years. However, economic governance has
become challenging in terms of contest between socialist and
republic values, adopted after independence as against newly
adopted market economy after 1991.
He further discussed three broad areas, such as degree of
state intervention, state regulators conduct vis-a-vis the private
sector and the lack of independence in their functioning and
inter-generational linkage between democracy, economy and
policy making.
He concluded by suggesting that there is a need to refurbish
the Planning Commission of India so that it becomes a true
national level institution, such as the RBI to deal with evolving
economic governance challenges. For this to happen, we need
a statesman in the country to lead.
Welcoming the guests Mr. Pradeep Mehta, Secretary
General, mentioned that CUTS International has now entered
its 30th year, and to celebrate the same we are organising
series of public lectures, by eminent friends around the world

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in cities where we are well known, on contemporary issues
which are related to our work agenda.
The aim of the lecture series is to address CUTS future
interventions to promote inclusive growth from the point of
view of their impact on consumer welfare in the light of
contemporary policy discourse on trade, regulation and
governance. CUTS aims to publish the lectures in a volume
and produce a video tape of the same, at the mid-2014.
Dr Siddhartha Roy, Economic Adviser, Tata Group laid
emphasis on the importance of regulatory uncertainty and its
negative impact on investments in the country. He referred to
the example of certain private companies being allowed to
seek higher tariff for their imported coal fired power projects
that are under implementation, which was not part of the
original contract that was based on a bidding process. Such
discrepancies in enforcement of contracts needs to be avoided
so as to ensure predictability of policies/rules that are laid
down by the Government.
Sucheta Dalal, Managing Editor, Moneylife spoke about
the absence of consumer participation in the policy making
process. She mentioned that the biggest stakeholders in India
are consumers/citizens, which unfortunately are left out from
discussions on economic governance.
Pradip Shah, Chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors emphasised
on the importance of efficiency and effectiveness of regulations
and public institutions in India. According to him, effectiveness
of implementation of law is weak and is one of the key issues
that need to be analysed and rectified. Shailesh Vaidya,
President, IMC Managing Committee also spoke at the event,
which was attended by over 50 participants in the hall.

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14. Trade Policy and Domestic Economic
Reforms are inseparable: Peter Varghese
Canberra, February 04, 2014
“One can change a country by changing trade and industrial
policy,” said Peter Varghese, Foreign Secretary of Australia.
He was speaking at the 15th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture
in Canberra yesterday on the subject of “Trade and Domestic
Reforms: The Australian Experience”.
Comparing the generations of economic reforms in
Australia, Varghese underlined that by placing consumers at
the centre of policy thinking, one can attend crucial social
objectives of development. “Through a sustained domestic
reforms programme for an open, market-driven economy,
Australia has attained greater competitiveness and prosperity,”
he added.
While welcoming the guests, CUTS Secretary General,
Pradeep S Mehta said: “For trade policy to be an effective
instrument of development, one needs to adopt a whole-ofgovernment approach to policy-making and implementation
and that requires more effective regulatory regimes.”
Mehta highlighted that for trade to be an effective tool of
development, one needs to see and feel the benefits of trade
liberalization and there should be convergence between trade
and public interest goals. In this context, he underlined the
need for adopting a Geneva Consensus for Trade which should
be based on balanced rules.
He also emphasized on the need for developing a broader
competition culture within and across borders so that there is

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continuous enhancement of productivity and good governance
and, for that to happen in a balanced manner, he highlighted
why a multilaterally agreed regime on trade and competition
policy linkages is needed.
The event was organized in partnership with the Australia
South Asia Research Centre of the Australian National
University, which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary. More
than 75 participants attended the event, chaired by Professor
Margaret Harding, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the
Australian National University.
Dr. Varghese emphasized that foreign direct investment is
an important part of trade liberalization agenda and this is
one of the subjects of Australia’s focus on free trade
agreements.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Raghbendra Jha,
executive Director of Australia South Asian Research Centre,
underlined the importance of trade reforms in the context of
India’s food security regime. In order to make this regime more
effective in terms of its reach and efficiency, he noted that
trade reforms could be an effective tool.
Dr. Shiro Amstrong of the Australian National University
spoke about Japan’s experience on trade reforms. He
questioned whether Japan’s economic partnership agreements
were trade-free or not. He underlined that Japan’s external
trade policy is not closely connected to domestic economic
reforms.
Following the presentations, many participants expressed
their views that there should be more emphasis on
transformative, particularly consumer welfare, effects of trade
policy reforms and anti-competitive dimensions of emerging
trade policies, particularly as a result of more stringent
intellectual property regimes, should be looked at more
specifically. They also underlined the need to have a closer
look at linkages between trade and inequality.

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15. Regional integration crucial for
Zambia’s developmental challenges:
Fundanga
Lusaka, March 12, 2014
Regional integration is an important factor in fostering
competitiveness and ultimately efficiency among small and
medium businesses, said Dr Caleb Fundanga, former
Governor, Bank of Zambia (BoZ).
Speaking at the 16th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture here
on 10th March, Dr Fundanga, currently President of the
Institute for Finance and Economics, said a lot needs to be
done at the individual enterprise level if products were to enter
the regional market.
“It is important that Zambian products must be of high
quality because they will have to compete against similar
products from the rest of the region. Aggressive marketing
and proper branding and packaging are also key ingredients,”
he added.
He however observed that Zambia’s external trade was
being hampered by trade barriers and anti-competitive
practices by other countries/ firms within the region.
“The scope for expanding intra-regional trade in SADC
exists if only South Africa can open up more to the products
of other SADC member countries. South Africa still has in
place a number of non-tariff barriers. A number of agricultural
products from the region cannot enter the South African
market for one reason or another and this reduces the scope
of SMEs, “he said.

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He also advised that Zambian SMEs must learn to be
outgoing by learning to speak languages of potential customers
as this would enhance their bargaining power in the trade
process.
In view of this, Dr. Fundanga has appealed to Zambian
SMEs to invest in learning additional international languages
like Portuguese, French and Swahili in order to gain access to
regional markets.
Speaking at the same event, former Minister of Commerce,
Trade and Industry (MCTI) Commerce Hon. Felix Mutati
encouraged SMEs to exploit the local markets before looking
beyond borders because “a dollar was the same regardless of
its source”.
Hon Mutati, who was recently elected as a member of the
COMESA Committee of Elders, also raised the concerns on
the growing non-tariff barriers amongst countries in the region
and indicated that this was eroding the efforts being made on
the free trade agreement negotiations.
Dr. Kundavi Kadirasan, World Bank Country
Representative reiterated Dr. Fundanga’s sentiment that
promotion of external trade was key in fostering the much
needed growth through improved competitiveness and
efficiency.
She added that Zambia had potential to grow its nontraditional exports especially in the field of professional
services.
Mrs. Yvonne Chileshe, Director of Foreign Trade in the
Zambian Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, stated
that regional integration would only be beneficial to the country
if value added products were being sold out of the country.
She hinted that Government had identified certain viable
sectors for SMEs to venture in, in its different development
plans.

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In view of the issue of languages raised by Dr. Fundanga,
Mrs. Chileshe was of the view that, indeed, government also
needed to leverage resources towards capacity building of trade
negotiators in different languages.
Mr. Edwin Zulu, Project Manager of Zambia-COMESA
SME Toolkit, implored government and international
cooperating partners to provide practical interventions when
assisting SMEs.
Speaking earlier in his welcome remarks, Mr. Rijit Sengupta,
Africa Regional Director at CUTS International, stressed the
important role that CUTS International played in bringing
together the grassroots, government, international
organisations, development partners and other key players to
discuss developmental issues within the context of its focus
areas which are trade, regulation and governance, all from a
consumer’s perspective. CUTS Lusaka Centre Coordinator,
Simon Ng’ona proposed the vote of thanks.

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16. India to mainstream foreign trade
policy: Rajeev Kher, Commerce Secretary
New Delhi, April 05, 2014
“India needs to mainstream its foreign trade policy with
the governance system of the country so as to enhance its
competitiveness in a holistic and dynamic manner” said Mr
Rajeev Kher, Commerce Secretary of India.
He was delivering the 17th CUTS 30th Anniversary Lecture
on “India’s Export Competitiveness, Prospects & Challenges:
The Role of Trade Policy”. It was organised here yesterday
evening in partnership with the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). More than 80
participants representing various interests participated.
“Foreign trade has to be looked as a composite economic
activity as against in silos. Various government departments
and the state governments need to work in tandem. The foreign
trade policy should have strategic objectives to address, should
be contextualised and not just an amalgamation of a set of
instruments towards export promotion”, said Mr Kher.
“Exports should no longer be considered as a function of
surplus generated over and above domestic consumption. It
should be an intrinsic part of a vibrant economy. Imports also
play a very important role because more than 60 per cent of
our imports are intermediaries to manufacturing. Intra-industry
trade is growing,” he added.
Welcoming the participants, Dr A Didar Singh, Secretary
General of FICCI, said: “There should be synergy between
trade in manufacturing and services.” He underlined the value

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that consumer advocacy groups like CUTS bring to the trade
policy discourse of India, and recalled that FICCI and CUTS
have a long partnership working on these issues.
Three decades of working globally on trade and development
In his welcome remarks, Mr Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary
General of CUTS International, outlined the journey that the
organisation had undertaken over three decades including the
crucial role that it is playing as a pro-trade, pro-equity voice
in Geneva, the headquarters of the World Trade Organisation
and in promoting South-South cooperation through its three
centres in Africa and two in Asia.
Mehta highlighted why foreign trade should play a much
greater role in transforming India’s manufacturing base from
low to high value products and its overall contribution to the
growth and development of the Indian economy.
Whole of government approach needed: Pradeep Mehta
“We need a whole-of-government approach to trade policymaking and it should be a crucial cog in the wheel of generating
100 million new jobs over the next five years as visualised by
our National Manufacturing Policy and Plan,” he added.
Chairing the event, Ms Lise Grande, Resident Coordinator
of the United Nations in India, said: “For India to grow faster
and improve its competitiveness, continuous enhancement of
its entrepreneurial and intellectual capacity is an imperative.
India needs to further diversify its product mix.”
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ajay Shankar, Member
Secretary of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness
Council emphasised on the importance of economies of scale
in India’s production structure to be able to enhance its
competitiveness.

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Shying away from labour reforms: Ajay Shankar
In this context, Mr Shankar said: “Why are we shying away
from labour reforms? We need to look at all cognate issues of
the country’s competitiveness and a national consensus is
needed for creating new jobs and going up the value chain of
production.”
“There should not be any dichotomy between domestic
and global competitiveness issues. We need to get right the
sequencing of reforms with right safety nets including trade
adjustment programmes”.
Talking about free trade agreements (FTAs) that India has
negotiated with some of its major trading partners in East and
South East Asia in recent years, Mr Kher said: “Indian industry
should make full use of them as they will serve as vehicles to
enter the global value chains of major products and services
of India’s interest.”
“India is likely to be adversely affected by mega FTAs such
as the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and, in this
context, successful negotiations of the Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement in the AsiaPacific region can be a potential game changer,” he added.
“India needs both locational and product diversification of
its trade composition. Strengthening of regional value chains
should be a stepping stone for getting into global value chains.”
The Lecture was followed by a round of lively discussion.
Questions ranged from the need for generating more awareness
among the Indian industries about advantages that the country
can draw from its FTAs to relationship between standards
and job creation to the role of exchange rate management for
enhancing trade competitiveness. There was a broad consensus
that the forthcoming foreign trade policy, which is due to be
announced by the new government, should have clear
objectives and roadmap for mainstreaming trade into India’s
national development strategy. A strong institutional

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mechanism for greater engagement of other relevant
departments and state governments should be in place so that
there is coherence between trade policy and other major
macroeconomic policies.
“We need to activate the Interstate Trade Council,
established in 2005, which has never met”, said Mehta in
response to a query on engaging states.
CUTS International is pursuing consumer sovereignty
through evidence-based policy- and action-research and
advocacy on cognate subjects of trade, regulations and
governance issues for enhancing consumer welfare through
job creation and poverty reduction. It has become a Southern
voice of consumers through its activities across Asia and Africa.