The Indian government has recently stated that they will be increasing duties on foreign imports by 5-10%. This is another move made by Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s to further his campaign based on Indian self reliance. Modi’s goals for India are to become more self reliant, which means cutting back on foreign imports and increasing domestic production. The products that would most likely be affected by this increase of duties are appliances, cars, and furniture, which are already higher priced goods. The increase in prices may discourage Indian citizens to buy from foreign retailers, which is a concern of many foreign companies at the moment.
It’s easy to see how this foreseen decrease in profit is going to affect foreign affairs for India. Foreign retailers are going to become upset with the Indian government if their new policies cause them to lose large sums of profit, which is not beneficial to either party. This could stress foreign relations for India, as commerce and economic agreements are a large part of alliances, and countries working together. This is not the first act towards self reliance that Modi has made that has brought upset. Just a few months ago, the Prime Minister was facing major backlash from the agricultural community of India, as he had placed what farmers saw as unfair regulations on how they were to sell their crops and products.
The goal of self reliance is one that goes completely against the liberal perspective of global affairs. Globalization is a large part of liberal theory, which is the complete opposite of countries being self reliant. India’s move towards bringing in less foreign goods and decreasing foreign trade is one that is not supported by liberal perspective. In fact, one of the three pillars of liberalism lies in the idea of an international market, and increased global trade. With more global trade comes better international relations, and more alliances, therefore bringing more peace. It will be interesting to see how India’s strides towards self reliance are responded to by global actors.