ABSTRACT
Over recent years, there has been an enhanced attention towards easing the procedural hassles in doing business and conducting cross-border trade. This chapter discusses the effect of such reform measures, specifically the reduction in the number of mandatory documents to accompany an export consignment and single window interface on India’s select agri-food trade sector by attempting to link macro level policy changes to micro field level effects in an exploratory framework. Secondly, the chapter examines the distractive effects of reforms induced by the ease of doing business. These aspects are examined by taking the case of India’s marine products and spices export sectors. The choice of these two sectors was influenced by the prevalence of non-tariff measures which turn out to be barriers and issues related to standards and regulations. These sectors in India face severe competition from countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc. Evidently, the lack of co-evolution of institutions in implementing trade policy reforms resulted in a scenario in which reforms do not trickle down to a sector and some regulations result in counterproductive outcomes such as exodus of firms’ value added activities to other competing countries. On the one hand, continued trade policy reforms have not resulted in any tangible reduction in issues related to standards, non-tariff barriers and the burden of documentation for India’s agri-food exports. On the other hand, it could be observed that reforms induced by the ease of doing business distract from the very basic institutional and infrastructural reforms the sector deserves.
