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The Wall Street Journal reports [2] 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.