Facets of Trade Facilitation: Exemplary Cases from China and India

The theoretical underpinnings of trade facilitation (TF) would suggest a ‘balanced growth’ approach to expedite trade. However, taking the example of China and India, in this article, we explore how selective measures are capable of addressing issues related to TF. Both the economies offer very innovative interventions to address issues corresponding to TF, especially embedded in the way institutions are coordinated and integrated. As against the conventional idea that TF has to be initiated and carried forward only by the government, the ‘One Touch’ initiative in China provides a role for public–private partnership on issues pertaining to TF. This clearly demonstrates how, besides generating demand for trade-logistics services, the private sector itself can act as a source of supply to such services. The operation of Grapenet in India highlights the need to focus on sector-specific TF requirements along with meeting multilateral obligations. The One Touch initiative has to be appreciated as it was brought about in a context of the limited evolution of the information technology (IT) platform in China, and Grapenet has to be appreciated specifically because it brought a paperless integrated system in an agricultural context in India, where this sector’s preparedness for TF is less than that of the manufacturing sector.