Most of the time the International Trade Commission makes the news — in these pages, at least — it’s because of its enforcement of anti-dumping rules that do little but boost the price of items such as steel and sugar for U.S. consumers. However, on Tuesday, the Commission will hold what promises to be a high-profile hearing on India’s cavalier treatment of international trade laws, and the outcome may very well portend the future of multilateral trade negotiations.
Put briefly, India treats trade treaties that it has signed as mere suggestions rather than law. Its companies refuse to respect intellectual property and the Indian government refuses to enforce laws that require its companies to pay to use it. It continues to place barriers to foreign direct investment, and it also makes foreign companies investing in the country use locally sourced components. And when these actions don’t make life easy enough for the corrupt, inefficient local companies then the Indian government takes a page from China’s playbook and haphazardly applies its regulatory policy to gum up the works for their foreign-owned competitors.
