The Role of States in the Formation of India’s Foreign Trade Policy After Cold War

The aim of this article is to analyse the role of states in the formulation of India’strade policy from evolutionary and present perspectives as well as the contemporaryissues that call for a modified institutional arrangement from a more state-inclusivepoint of view. Over the course of the last twenty years, however, trade policy makinghas become a tedious task, which made it extremely hard for any trade ministry toperform his/her duties swiftly. The ever increasing ‘range’ (and also importance)of ‘tradables’ in goods and services, capital, labour, as well as newborn issues inthe international trading system and multiplicity of trade agreements, have madeit imperative for trade ministries to have effective and deeper ‘communication’with public entities and private interests within their sovereign states. In order toachieve this, a trade ministry must have an ‘institutional’ architecture that takescognizance and acts upon the various demands emanating from various parts of thecountry. India’s trade policy is formulated and implemented mainly by the Ministryof Commerce and Industry. While the constitutional provisions regarding India’strade policy decision making have remained unchanged since gaining independence,the evolution of how states have become increasingly important in India’s tradepolicy making, is of importance.Hence, it is imperative to understand as to why states are becoming important inIndia’s trade policy formation and how institutions facilitate the same? Hypothisingthat, states are playing increasingly indispensable role in India’s foreign trade policyformation, this paper shall attempt to answer the abovementioned.