India’s slashing of whisky tariff great for trade
“Freedom and Whisky gang thegither,” wrote the Scottish poet Robert Burns. And this month economic freedom and whisky truly have gone hand in hand with the decision by India to hack away at punitive import tariffs on Scottish whisky. Scotch producers are delighted, believing that they could see exports to India increase by a factor of four. Needless to say, this is exactly the opposite of what development campaigners would like to see. After all, whisky is an infant industry for India, and therefore needs “targeted protection”.
Back in the real world, targeted isolationism has had a dismal record over the past fifty years. Such isolationism breeds uncompetitive companies that fail to turn into profitable industries. It is much better for industries to be created that can actually compete in the here and now: they are the ones that really will grow into global players. Whisky is likely to be one such industry for India. Perhaps I haven’t been looking but I haven’t noticed Indian whisky on the supermarket shelves yet. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of it in the future. Is that bad news for Scottish producers? Probably for cheap, blended brands like Bells and Teachers, but India’s rising middle class is a huge market for selling genuine article Single Malt Scotch to.