Pravin Krishna on the Political Economy of Multilateral and Preferential Trade Agreements, Trade Liberalization, and the Future of Global Trade

Ideas of India

Today my guest is Pravin Krishna is the Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University, at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and Department of Economics. We talked about history of preferential trade agreements, India’s approach to trade liberalization, whether such agreements are trade creating or diverting, and much more.

Recorded November 12th, 2024.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:00:59) - Essential Components of the Postwar Multilateral Trade System

(00:04:38) - India’s Role in the GATT and the Special Status of Developing Countries

(00:06:31) - India in the Global Trade System After 1991

(00:09:10) - The Decline of the WTO and New Trade Dynamics

(00:17:45) - Understanding the Small Percentages of Preferential Trade

(00:20:19) - Indian Trade Liberalization and Alliances from 2010–2020

(00:26:18) - Viner: Trade Creation and Trade Diversion

(00:33:35) - More Optimistic View of Equilibrium

(00:38:46) - Foreign Lobbies in Domestic Markets

(00:49:3) - Just pick a number

(00:55:21) - The Impact of Trade Liberalization

(01:04:05) - Labor Elasticity in Relation to Trade Openness

(01:11:17) - Predicting the Near Future Impact of U.S. Trade Tariffs

(01:19:52) - How the New Administration’s Plans Might Impact India

(01:25:58) - Future Trade Relations Between India and China

(01:30:52) - Outro