The International Development of India and Pakistan

Abstract

This paper attempts to review briefly what other economists have already written about the international trade of India and Pakistan, to raise some questions which may suggest further empirical work, and to make some assertions for which I cannot now cite any reference. Section I briefly discusses the import policies of India and Pakistan. Section II examines the exports of India and Pakistan to the rest of the world, and section III deals with the benefits to each country of increased trade between them.² I ignore the international movement of people and of capital. 1950 and 1967, and the index of export prices of the industrial countries rose by 1¸5 per cent per year in the same period: International Financial Statistics. If one knew the appropriate exchange rate over time, one could compare directly the ratio of imports to G.N.P. over time in India and Pakistan.

We recognize no legitimate demand on the student to spare anybody’s feelings. Facts should be stated coldly: understatements, as well as overstatements, represent biases.

Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, p. 23

My definition also excludes any ‘natural’ decline in the ratio of imports to domestic production as economic growth occurs because, for example, services become a larger share of G.N.P.