Global Value Chains and the Missing Links

'Effective participation in the Global Value Chains is indeed one of the most missing elements of India's international trade. We started at independence as an inward-looking country with emphasis on 'import substitution' as the primary goal conserving foreign exchange to import the only the most essential goods. This licence permit raj of management had reached its limits and we ended up promoting inefficiencies, poor quality and high costs through this protectionism. We moved to the next phase in 1991 effectively opening up trade with 'export promotion' replacing our earlier policy of 'import substitution'.

But so far as being part of an international chain of value addition, thus, importing raw materials or intermediate goods and re-exporting them after processing is concerned, we have miles to go. Schemes such as SEZs, EOUs, EPCG, Advance Authorisation schemes are steps in this direction. However, we have not become a major player in the Global Value Chains. The reasons for this situation are much more than mere EXIM policies or Customs procedures. The entire range of issues which the participating organisations have to deal with including infrastructure, finance, time taken to clear the goods, transport them to the factories and to re-export them need to be looked at. This book precisely and wonderfully does that. It is absolutely opportune that such a study is made at this time in the country.

In addition to identifying the problems in general, it is important to study specific industries and their problems and issues if the studies have to be meaningful and this is the second biggest contribution of the book. I am confident that the book will be extremely useful for policymakers, practitioners, researchers and trade alike and it will encourage others to conduct more studies covering a larger number of industries.'

P. V. Subba Rao, IRS (C&CE), Joint Secretary (COFEPOSA), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Govern