The doctor prescribes medicine to the patient for a chronic condition. After a few years, the patient is back with worsened symptoms. The doctor discovers that the patient has been on an alternative medicine course. Similarly, in the 1950s, the lack of economic growth was diagnosed as a symptom of the global economy, and the cure was liberalisation, privatisation, and globalisation (LPG). However, today the world is seeing a seismic shift in trade policy that marks the end of an era. The current US administration has replaced the LPG model with nationalism, protectionism, and bilateralism (NPB). Developing countries, including India, will find that this strategy creates complications, as it puts decades of multilateral trade agreements at risk.
Published in Hindustan Times
Link: Undoing the Washington Consensus
Prof. Meera Aranha and Prof. Srinivasa Reddy.
