India, other Asian countries benefited from opening up trade: Panagariya

India and several other Asian countries have in the past defied the belief that protectionism is good for developing economies as these nations reaped benefits of opening up trade and lower tariffs, eminent economist Arvind Panagariya said Saturday. Lower trade barriers help countries in achieving high growth rates and in reducing poverty, he said, adding that "we can casually link free trade to high per capita incomes". "When a country opens up trade, (then) growth happens and it invariably reduces poverty...Asian tiger economies (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan), China, India and Vietnam reduced trade barriers and they benefited," he said at the launch of his new book 'Free Trade & Prosperity'. Panagariya, who is currently a professor of Indian Political Economy at Columbia University, noted that due to rapid growth, countries like India and China were able to pull out millions of people out of poverty. The economist, who was also the vice chairman of Niti Aayog, ...

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