Hindurance to Trade

by Don Boudreaux on February 24, 2016

in Regulation, Trade

The Wall Street Journal reports on the obstacles – erected by the Indian government – that Ikea is encountering in its attempt to sell furniture in that country.  Here’s the report’s opening line:

Swedish retailer IKEA wants to sell its flat-pack dining tables, cotton dish towels and Scandinavian-sounding sofas to India’s blossoming middle class. Under Indian law, roughly one-third of those items must be made locally, and that is proving a formidable obstacle.

Look no further for the reason why, despite significant liberalization over the past quarter-century, many millions of Indian people remain poor: their government keeps them that way by obstructing their freedom to trade and to innovate.

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