Trends in India's External Trade in Rubber and Rubber Products: An Inter Temporal Analysis

Abstract

In a relative term, the assessment on the consequences of global trading regime governed by WTO in a significant way has been concerned with macro level issues compared to product specific studies from a national or global perspective. Several factors such as trade policy reforms initiated in a large number of countries or country groupings, rules of the WTO agreement, overriding importance of today's regional trade agreements and broad sectoral issues are influencing the behavioural patterns and equations of international trade. The popular academic and policy perspectives tend to treat product specific issues as an ensemble of broad sectoral issues. As a result, there exists a substantial paucity of product specific studies across countries. Attempts are made only when the issues surface beyond the scope of sectoral level survival or revival strategies. The long term implications of such a policy paradigm exposes the relevance of studies pertaining to the performance of individual product groups in the context of trade policy reforms. In the light of this development, the paper makes an attempt to provide a detailed analysis of the trends in India's external trade in rubber and rubber products.