Tax or trade.

"India has drawn up a list of over 35 items that are being examined for a possible customs duty increase in the upcoming budget, scheduled to be announced on February 1. Private jets, helicopters, high-end electronic items, plastic goods, jewellery, high gloss paper and vitamins are among the items that are on the list prepared by the government." ET. Because, "India's current account deficit (CAD) rose to a nine-year high of 4.4% of GDP in the quarter ended September from 2.2% of GDP in the preceding quarter." Customs duty was raised on a range of imported goods in the 2020 Budget. In 2020, "Consumers can expect to pay more for imported food and grocery items, shoes, ceiling fans, wooden furniture, kitchenware, appliances, hairdryers, shelled walnuts and other items with the budget raising basic customs duty to as much as 100% on some of them to encourage local producers." ET. Which means that, with competition being priced much higher, local producers can also increase prices on shoddy goods. On the other hand, "The free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Australia, came into effect from Thursday, December 29." Outlook. "India's goods exports to Australia stood at $8.3 billion and imports from that country aggregated to $16.75 billion in 2021-22," which included coal, mineral ore and wines. Cheaper raw materials should lower the cost of production in India. In May 2022, "The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and the UAE came into effect..., allowing most of the country's exports duty-free access to the Emirates." ET. FTA negotiations with the UK have come to a halt, despite Prime Minister of Britain Rishi Sunak's "grandparents on both sides were from India and had migrated to East Africa." The Converstion. Because India "has a 150% tariff on imports of Scotch, and bringing that down has been a key ask of New Delhi's trade negotiators from European trade commissioners, and now post-Brexit trade secretaries." BBC. However, "Whereas Indian leaders routinely express regret at having signed FTAs even with countries accounting for minuscule proportion of the country's trade, tiny Vietnam has boldly embraced such economic giants as China and the European Union in FTAs. It also has FTAs with every single Asian country of any significance," wrote Prof Arvind Panangariya & Deepak Mishra. Vietnam's export of phones soared from $0.9 billion in 2009 to $31.2 billion and its electronic goods exports stood at $122 billion, in 2020. India walked out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2019 and opted out of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in 2022, wrote Ajit Ranade. The government suddenly banned the export of wheat and then sugar, which makes it unreliable. India failed to get its bonds listed on global indices which could have increased inflows by $40 billion. "Euroclear, a major such platform, has pushed India to exempt the transactions from taxes to ease compliance. Other countries using the platform follow that policy." Bloomberg. Tax or trade? Can't have both.