Inside India’s new playbook on free trade deals

The duty concessions extended under that pact led companies such as Honda and Sony to import gearboxes and television sets rather than manufacture them locally, putting the government on the defensive over the impact on domestic industry.What followed was a phase of careful calibration. The government resisted cutting tariffs on what it considered “sensitive sectors” such as wine and spirits and automobiles, wary that domestic manufacturing could be hurt and grape farmers adversely affected. Any policy mov ...