The information technology agreement and the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative: Weighing the better alternative for india

Khanderia, Saloni (2018) The information technology agreement and the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative: Weighing the better alternative for india. Foreign Trade Review, 53 (2). pp. 98-115. ISSN 00157325

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Abstract

The World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which was concluded at the Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996, is considered to be one of the biggest tariff-cutting deals by virtue of eliminating all customs-related duties on the exportation of certain categories of information technology products to a country, which is a member to the Agreement. Over time, new innovations in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector mandated the consideration of expanding the list of products covered by this Agreement, which took place in the form of ITA-II negotiations. India, which was an original member of the ITA-I, however, decided to opt-out of the negotiations to expand the list of products covered by the Agreement, and reasoned its absence by stating that the zero-tariff regime created by the ITA-I debilitated its electronics-manufacturing sectors and on the contrary resulted in an over-reliance on imported electronic inputs. Accordingly, providing duty-free treatment to a further list of IT products could potentially be detrimental for the country’s economic growth. Consequently, it preferred to give priority to its national policy initiative, namely the ‘Make-in-India’ programme, which embarks upon fostering domestic production of, inter alia, the ICT sector. This article accordingly weighs the better alternative for India and analyses the prospects of initiatives like the current one to resuscitate the ailing domestic electronics-manufacturing sector, before it can benefit from the zero-tariff regime over the expanding list of products covered by the ITA-II. JEL: K33, M15

Item Type: Article
Keywords: Informational technology agreement | Make in India programme | World trade organization
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > International Relations
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Law and Legal Studies
JGU School/Centre: Jindal Global Law School
Depositing User: Mr Sombir Dahiya
Date Deposited: 17 Dec 2021 11:51
Last Modified: 21 Dec 2021 05:25
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0015732517734749
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/261

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