Sungbae An, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy: Rising protectionism throughout the world---Trump's trade war in particular---has materialized in multiple dimensions: tariff hikes, non-tariff barriers, and disrupting multilateralism. It raises considerable concern among experts and blows up uncertainty, both of which delay consumption and investment and result in the recent global growth slowdown. The work by Athukorala summarizes the development of the U.S.--India trade dispute, including changes in the trade policy stance of both countries, and investigates economic impacts on India of new tariff measures and the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) abolition by the United States. Negative impacts are found on steel and aluminum exports from the tariff hike according to Section 301, but the GSP abolition is expected to a larger and significant impact, especially on the traditional labor-intensive industries.
With the increasing strategic importance of India to the United States (e.g., the Indo-Pacific strategy) and the prolonged...