ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY

INDIA'S STRATEGY FOR ENHANCING TRADE RELATIONS

- Vaishali Basu Sharma

Globalisation has offered new economic opportunities in several fields, including science, communication, and technology, but at the same time, it has increased the competition for capital and economic marginalisation of developing countries. A bilateral relationship is a constituent of several items that encompass politically, culturally, and economically motivated relations between two independent nations.

In contemporary diplomacy, economic diplomacy has acquired increasing importance involving a shift in priorities and becoming more multi-stakeholder in nature. Economic diplomacy can be characterised as an arrangement of activities with respect to procedures and strategies for cross-border monetary activities that help establish links between corporate players and the state for export or investment purposes. It focuses on tariffs, foreign exchange, the sale of goods, and customs negotiations. Economic diplomacy works on the premise that economic/commercial interests and political interests reinforce each other and, therefore, need to be considered together.

Protectionism and political differences will always be the biggest blocks to the free flow of trade, and it is necessary that India align its trade policy with its domestic and international outlook on other issues, before rashly entering or leaving free trade agreement notifications. India's active economic diplomacy of late has positively reinforced bilateral and bloc relations.