1. INTRODUCTION:

Natural rubber was introduced in the country in the early 20^th century when the imperial government found the opportunity of turning its colony into a steady supplier of natural rubber, a major component in several industries and production processes of those days. Since the Southern part of the country was largely favourable in terms of climatic conditions as well as availability of land in those days, the English administration established several plantations across the regions of present day Kerala and pioneered into the growth and expansion of the sector.

Although natural rubber was a monopoly of the Englishmen in the early days, it soon spread among the general masses and became one of the important agricultural commodities that the State produces today.

Initially, the native people were not allowed to engage in rubber farming. However, this restriction was removed in 1920’s and this further accelerated the geographical expansion of rubber cultivation. The formation of ‘Malankara Rubber and Produce Company’ in 1910 and various other cooperative societies following this model in Kerala increased the rubber production and made it commercially viable and economically profitable.

The colonial administration always encouraged the rubber cultivation due to its commercial importance and this trend was followed by the governments which came after independence too. Rubber Act of 1947 was an important milestone in the history of natural rubber cultivation in India. This act laid down several regulations and laws which governs the rubber cultivation and its trade today. Later in the year 1954, an amendment¹ was made to this act to incorporate the provisions seeking the establishment of ‘Indian Rubber Board’ headquartered at Kottayam. Along with these developments, the natural rubber sector expanded further fuelled by the growing domestic and international demand along with inadequate supply. Several interventions from the part of various governments as well as the Rubber Board helped in increasing the productivity of this sector.

Today, India’s economy is shifting from the primary sector to secondary and tertiary sectors. The country is now largely becoming dependent on these two sectors for employment generation and further economic growth. Thus, it has become very crucial for the country to maintain enough natural resources and raw materials required for the smooth functioning of these two sectors. Among the industries coming under the primary sector, automobile industry occupies an important position in the economy and rubber forms one of the most important raw material consumed largely by the auto mobile industry. The State of Kerala accounts for approximately 78.72% of total natural rubber production in the country although it just occupies 1.2% of total area and 2.5% of total population of India (Kumar,Sajeev, 2017). Natural Rubber is an important component within the economy which can influence and determine the financial prosperity of the region. It is also worth mentioning that more than one-third of the households depend upon the rubber directly or indirectly as a source of income. This shows how much the State’s economy relies upon the rubber production and how any change to this equilibrium can cause serious negative implications on the region’s economic wellbeing. This also points to the fact that how crucial are the trade policies and other regulations with regards to natural rubber and its foreign trade, as this sector is a significant contributor to the national revenue earnings of India in general and Kerala in Particular.

Objectives of the Study:

1. To make an overall examination of the progress made in the cultivation and production of natural rubber in India over the course of time.

2. To enumerate the existing condition of the natural rubber sector.

2. MATERIAL AND METHOD:

The study primarily aims at an analysis of the existing policy framework which dictates the natural rubber sector in the country. Since the attempt is made through the perspective of political economy, the study will be both quantitative and qualitative in nature.

Sources of Data:

The study uses secondary data sources in order to understand the overall progress made by the natural rubber industry in the country.

Secondary Data:

Sources of secondary data include International Rubber Study Group (IRSG), Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), located in Kottayam, various books and articles published. In order to enumerate the foreign trade policies of India regarding the natural rubber, this study made use of the statistical resources of various central and State agencies and organizations including the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Ministry of External Affairs.

Analytical Tools:

The collected data is analyzed with the help of simple analytical tools like percentage, rate of growth, averages etc.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Indian Scenario

Since its entry in 1900’s into the Indian soil, natural rubber has become one of the most important product of Indian agricultural sector as well as an important constituent of various manufacturing units and industries. Though initially rubber was primarily used for the tyre manufacturing, later it was diversified into various other commodities as well.

Today, natural rubber and the rubber tree is used in the production of more than fifty thousand goods and products which have an indispensable position in our day to day lives. Natural rubber-based industries and related manufacturing units along with the foreign trade of natural rubber today provides a lot of employment to people in States like Kerala, Nagaland etc. As of the latest statistics, India is the fourth largest producer and second largest consumer of rubber (Indian Rubber Statistics, 2015). Rubber also forms a major source of earning foreign reserves for the economy as it is exported to countries which has a strong automobile manufacturing industry. Examples would include Japan, China, Germany and USA.

Figure 1: Annual growth of Rubber (in percentage)

^Data gathered from Indian Rubber Statistics, 2000-2015 May issues.

Production of Natural Rubber:

Rubber production in India is concentrated to certain few pockets of the country. The production pattern is in such a way that three States produce around 97% of total rubber output of the country. Kerala leads the list with contribution of 92% of total output of the natural rubber in the country followed by Tamil Nadu (3.4%) and Karnataka (2.1%). Most of the remaining States together contribute remaining 2.4% of gross national output of natural rubber (Manish N, 2013). This includes States like Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Goa and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The production of natural rubber in India is mainly carried out by ‘Rubber Producing Societies’, which functions as an intermediary between small scale farmers and rubber manufacturers and exporters. Large scale producers like plantation owners and planters also contribute a sizeable amount of natural rubber to the total output.

From the official data of Rubber Bpard, it can be observed that the total area under rubber cultivation increased from 7, 11,560 hectares in 2010-11 to 7, 95,135 hectares in the year 2014-15. Thus, the total area under cultivation showed an increase of 1.175% in the span of five years. Similarly, the total production of natural rubber increased from 864650 tonnes in 2010-11 to 917755 tonnes in 2012-13, which is an increase of 6.14%. It can also be inferred from these statistics that the rate of increase in the total production is greater than the rate of the increase in the area under the cultivation of Hevea brasiliensis. This in turn implies that the productivity of natural rubber has increased over the course of time, primarily due to the modern agricultural practises and various policies to promote the expansion of cultivation of natural rubber. However, it is also worth mentioning that the rate of growth was uneven across the country. While the traditional regions saw a slow and steady growth, the non-traditional rubber cultivating areas had a giant leap in rubber production.

Table 1: Selected State-wise Area and Production of Natural Rubber in India (2010-2011 to 2012-2013 and 2014-2015) (Area in Hectare; Production in Tonne)

States/UT	2010-11		2011-12		2012-13		2014-2015
States/UT	Area	Prod.	Area	Prod.	Area	Prod.	Area
Traditional Regions
Kerala	534228	770580	539565	798940	545030	800050	549955
Tamil Nadu	19767	25160	19790	25220	20770	25350	20925
Sub Total	553995	795740	559355	824110	565800	825400	570880
Non Traditional Regions
a) North-Eastern Region
Tripura	59285	25875	64480	30590	67730	33220	75070
Assam	32659	8050	38090	10310	43335	11740	51795
Meghalaya	10584	5135	11875	6380	12865	7110	14775
Nagaland	-	1054	-	1395	-	1655	14235
Manipur	-	730	-	920	-	1035	3955
Mizoram	-	189	-	250	-	300	3550
Arunachal Pradesh	-	167	-	195	-	220	4065
Karnataka	38110	23705	41588	27910	44900	31250	49210
Other North-East	11157	2140	14025	2760	17105	3210	-
Sub Total	113685	67045	128470	80710	141035	89740	216655
b) Others
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	879	312	-	270	-	220	805
Goa	1081	351	1125	555	1153	585	1165
Maharashtra	1173	102	1513	195	1830	340	2310
Odisha	-	177	-	200	-	220	1840
West Bengal	-	299	-	375	-	325	850
Andhra Pradesh	-	64	-	65	-	80	630
Others	2637	560	2729	890	2802	845	-
Sub Total	43880	1865	46955	2550	50685	2615	7600
India	711560	864650	734780	907370	757520	917755	795135

Source: Indian Rubber Statistics Highlights, 2016

In India, the natural rubber is made in the form RSS rubber sheets or the Ribbed Smoked Sheets. Ribbed Smoked Sheets (RSS) are coagulated rubber sheets which are made from the latex collected from plantations that follow scientific, modern agricultural practises. The higher grades RSS 1X to RSS 3 are mainly used for manufacture of products for medical, pharmaceutical and engineering. The lower grades of RSS 4 and RSS 5 are generally used for the manufacture of automobile tyres, re-treading materials and all other general products. RSS 3 and RSS 4 are the preferred raw material for radial tyres.

Quality of Ribbed Smoked Sheets is ascertained as laid down in Green Book Standards. RSS 1X and RSS 1 are the superior quality rubber. Oxidized spots or streaks, weak, heated, under-cured, over-smoked, opaque and burnt sheets are not permissible in this grade. The rubber must be dry, clean, strong, sound and evenly smoked, and free from blemishes, specks, resinous matter (rust), blisters, sand, dirty packing and any other foreign matter. Following these grades are RSS 2 and RSS 3. They are also of good quality but are not as superior as RSS 1 or 1X. The poor quality rubber sheets are categorized under RSS 4 and RSS 5. In these grades of rubber sheets, large bark particles, bubbles and small blisters, stains, over-smoked, slightly sticky rubber and blemishes are permissible. Slightly under-cured rubber is also permissible under these categories. However, weak, heated, burnt, oxidized spots or streaks are not permissible. The rubber must be dry, firm and free of blisters. Dirty packing, sand and all other foreign matter other than specified above is also not permissible. Other than the production in the form of sheets, natural rubber is also extracted in the forms of latex or CENEX, Indian Standard Natural Rubber or ISNR, crepe rubber etc. Latex is a form of natural rubber produced for commercial purposes wherein the natural rubber latex is extracted and processed into high quality latex concentrate of 60% dry rubber content. This is achieved through the centrifugation process. The centrifuged latex is again broadly divided into two categories namely high ammonia latex and low ammonia latex based on the amount of ammonia present. ISNR is another unique product from the rubber producers of India where the natural rubber is processed into blocks using modern and economically viable production processes. Unlike the RSS rubber where the focus is on the visible quality, the ISNR emphasizes the importance on the real quality of rubber making it perfectly suitable for the commercial use. Due its technical certified quality rather than the visual quality, ISNR is known for its consistency in its quality and has a huge demand from across the world and within the country. Bureau of Indian Standards has laid down certain parameters and specifications for the production of ISNR by the taxonomization of the same into various qualities namely ISNR 3CV, ISNR 3L, ISNR 5, ISNR 10, ISNR 20 and ISNR 50.

Natural rubber produced in India is used for domestic consumption as well as exports to other countries. For the purpose of exports, natural rubber in India is branded as Indian Natural Rubber, a name given by the Rubber Board for the purpose of the promotion of natural rubber produced in the country.

Consumption of Natural Rubber in India:

India is one of the worlds’ largest rubber consumers. India stands second behind China in terms of consumption of natural rubber. India achieved this position by consuming 9.60% of total global consumption of natural rubber.

Table 2: Consumption of Rubber in the Production of Final Products 2014-15 (in tonnes)

Products	Natural Rubber	Synthetic Rubber	Reclaimed Rubber
Auto Tyre and Tubes	682350	382690	49640
Cycle Tyres	75465	29585	26750
Camel Back	44675	31785	4730
Footwear	62635	35190	9650
Belts and Hoses	42170	17730	10750
Latex Foam	28385	--	--
Dipped Goods	41215	--	--
Others	44015	39150	27545
Total	1020910	536130	129065

^adapted from Indian Rubber Statistics, April 2016

Consumption of natural rubber is on steady increase over the past few decades, which is mainly due to the growth of automobile and tyre industries functioning in the country. In 2014-15, India consumed 1020910 tonnes of natural rubber domestically. Out of this, 680840 tonnes of natural rubber was consumed by the tyre industry alone. This was against the 981520 tonnes in the previous year.

Production and Consumption of Natural Rubber in Kerala:

The case of natural rubber, its production, consumption and impact within the economy of the State of Kerala is worth mentioning as Kerala accounts for more than 90% of total natural rubber production in the country. From the beginning of rubber cultivation in the country, Kerala leads as the biggest producer as well as one of the largest consumers of rubber within India. Both production and consumption have grown over the course of time primarily due to the modernization in the technologies related to farming and industrial processes related to rubber. The total plantation area under rubber cultivation in the State increased from 479602 hectares in the year 2003 to 545030 hectares in 2015, showing a net growth of 13.6%. The total production of natural rubber within the State increased from 798940 tonnes in 2014 to 800050 tonnes in 2015, showing a net increase of 0.13%. The productivity (per hectare) of land under cultivation for the year 2015 is 1.46 tonnes / hectare.

Natural Rubber and Its Influence on the Economy:

Natural rubber is concentrated in the few pockets of the country. However, the impact of rubber in the economy is significant. Particularly, for a State like Kerala where the rubber contributes more to the economy than any other crop points to the fact that the any fluctuation in the prices of the rubber can have a major impact on the economy as well as the lives of the people in the concerned region. According to the Rubber Board statistics, the direct employment by the rubber plantations for the past year is 4.45 lakhs. Adding the indirect employment made by the rubber (which is around 16.7 lakhs) sector to this number, around 20 lakhs of people are either directly or indirectly employed by the rubber sector in the State (Indian Rubber Statistics, 2015). From the previous sections, data showed how the country consumes more rubber than its domestic production. While India is the fourth largest producer of natural rubber with a production of 6, 45,000 tonnes of rubber, it is the second largest consumer of natural rubber with consumption 10, 20, 910 tonnes of rubber. This points to the fact that there is a huge gap between the demand-supply of natural rubber domestically. This gap is filled by the supply of natural rubber through imports from various other foreign markets. Natural rubber is also beneficial for the government in terms of the revenue that it generates in the form of taxes. For instance, the total revenue collected by the government in 2014 from the natural rubber Rs.100.8 crore, according to the Statistical Bureau of Rubber Research Institute.

Analysing the recent trends, however, it is clear that several policies that the government once had for the welfare of rubber sector is being reverted back for petty economic benefits and political reasons. An example would be the suspension of subsidies for replanting the rubber after clearing the plantation for re-cropping. Earlier, government had the scheme where a one-time subsidy amount of Rs.25,000/ Hectare was distributed to all farmers. This scheme is discontinued citing financial burden incurring from the scheme over the shoulders of the government. Similarly, last year, government allocated a sum total of Rs.967 Cr only for the functioning of Rubber Board and its research institutes, creating problems in programme design and execution.

Policies and Regulatory Frameworks for Natural Rubber Sector:

1 Bangkok Agreement 1976 (Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement)

Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) was a multilateral treaty signed in the year 1976 to promote the objectives of the Kabul declaration, which emphasized on the importance of expanding the trade of the region, which houses a vast majority of the developing nations of those days and to increase their economic interaction with the rest of the world, particularly the Pacific nations like USA, Latin America etc. The agreement was guided by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia (ESCA) under the auspices of Asian Trade Expansion Programme (ATEP). The signatories included the five nations of the region, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos and the Unified Korean Republic. This agreement reinforced the Article IV of GATT agreement as well as the WTO provisions for subsidies and countervailing duties. The treaty also encouraged a common customs nomenclature and offered a provision where the signatories were encouraged to extend the Most Favoured Nations (MFN) trade preferences to other parties of the agreement as well (Ministry of Commerce, 2006, p. 19). The agreement covered several agricultural commodities as well as several other raw materials produced in the region under the purview of the concession list, whereby the countries could ask other member nations to ease the duties and tariffs on such commodities in order to ensure their free flow. This also had provisions for the reduction in the tariff structure of the natural rubber products like tyre, tyre tubes, health products etc. at a discounted rate of 16% of total import value.

2 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD-Nairobi, May 1976):

In the fourth session of UNCTD, it was agreed that there will be a special initiative from the part of the United Nations to encourage the global trade and to improve the terms of trade of developing countries so as to reduce the” imbalances between the developing and developed nations of the world through adopting trade related policies in favour of the domestic markets of those nations, or at least without hurting their interests.”(United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 1976, p. 07, 13-14). Accordingly, nearly 27 commodities, including natural rubber was included in the list so as to enhance and encourage the domestic markets for these commodities and also to incentivise the farmers from developing countries who rely upon the production of these goods.

3 India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA):

India-Sri Lanka Free Trade agreement was the result of years of negotiations in order to improve the ties between two nations, which was at its historic low after the Indian mission in Sri Lankan soil to cleanse the island nation from LTTE. The agreement was signed in 1999 and it came into effect in 2000. While India met it pledges by the mid-2003, Sri Lanka fulfilled the ease of trade framework by 2008.

Under this agreement, commodities are grouped into positive list and negative list to regulate the nature of cross-border trade. There will be complete waiver of duties and taxes for these commodities over the both nations have mutually agreed upon. As per the provisions, rubber products like tyres can be imported at nil customs duty. Considering the lower labour costs and availability of the cheap rubber in the Island nation, several Indian companies have trade interests in the region for the tyre and allied industries. This has also created a situation of free flow of natural rubber between the two countries due to the differences in the exchange rate and the prices of rubber in both nations. The total volume of India-Sri Lanka bilateral trade is around $3.6 billion in 2014 where more than 67% is the Indian exports to the island nation in the form of refined petroleum, software, consumer goods etc. Most of the trade happens via the Chennai, Kochi and Vishakhapatnam ports of Indian and the Colombo, Jaffna ports on the Sri Lankan side.

4 SAARC Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA, 1995):

SAARC was formed as a regional alliance to counter the rowing influence of the Soviet and American blocs in the region and to maintain the political neutrality and non-alliance principle of the member nations. It formed as an organization to encourage the cross border trade by understanding the unique culture that each nations share. SAPTA was the major milestone in the history of the SAARC after its inception in 1985 as SAPTA helped in creating a common ground for the countries to engage in economic activities and trade that are beneficial for both parties and their domestic markets. Another objective of this treaty was to enhance the trade in the region, which accounts for more than 40% of global population and 15.6% of total populated area. SAPTA was considered as the first step towards the SAFTA agreement, which was signed nearly a decade later.

SAPTA was the result of four rounds of negotiating talks which covered nearly four thousand commodities produced in the region with the objectives of making the trade a comparatively advantageous process for both the engaging parties, to create a common framework of customs duties in favour of the least developed nations within the organization, to help such nations to overcome the problem of capital deficiency and lagging technological progress etc.

The treaty follows the negative list approach of the WTO, wherein the commodities are divided into a positive listed or negative listed item. There will be sizeable amount of restrictions over the trade of the items in the negative list whereas the positive items will have relatively smaller duties and in most cases, the countries will negotiate to bring those rates to zero. Regarding the rubber sector, while most of the by products made from the natural rubber are included in the positive list of the treaty, it must be mentioned that the natural rubber as a raw material is excluded from free trade and it is considered as a negative listed commodity with sizeable amount of restrictions over its transaction across the borders of the member nations.

5 ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA, 2009):

ASEAN Free Trade Area is a multilateral treaty signed between the ASEAN member nations and the observer nations like the China, India etc. wherein the primary objective is to create a free trade area in the model of European Union across the region so as to facilitate the trade and to encourage regional cooperation. The trade deal was negotiated over a period of nine years and it came into effect in the fiscal year 2006-07. It was later extended to include more than 8,000 commodities.

The main feature of the ASEAN treaty is that it encourages Common Effective Preferential Tariff five percentage to fifteen percentage. This is done by creating various schedules of commodities and categorizing them into sensitive, highly sensitive and general exceptions. The tariff structure will be different according to the schedule in which the commodity is included. Though this is the case with the member signatories, there is a degree of freedom in the case of the observer nations. As per the existing negotiated deal, with regard to the natural rubber, there is nil tariff concessions for the trade between Indian and other nations in the region. However, this has been only applicable to the natural rubber and most other rubber related products like tyre and tyre tubes have minimal or zero tariff structure. The ultimate aim of the free trade area is to reduce the trade barriers existing in the region to encourage trade. However, it must be noted that though it will create more markets for the Indian industries and other exports, to an extent it influences the domestic prices and the wellbeing of the farmers as well.

6 WTO Regulations and the Status of Natural Rubber:

WTO is the premier organization in determining the nature of the foreign trade that’s takes place in the highly globalized 21st century. Formed as a successor of the GATT agreement, WTO acts as an inter-governmental organization which facilitates free flow of the goods, one single global market, and a settlement body to mediate in the disputes that arises between various member nations. WTO framework seeks regular programmes to improve the free market situation by removing trade barriers and encourage countries to move away from protectionism. India, being a signatory to the WTO, has those commitments it must fulfil to not face retaliatory actions from the organization and the participating nations.

According the WTO agreement, natural rubber is considered as an input or raw material used in the production of the various industrial commodities like dipped gloves, surgical items, tyres, valves etc. As a result, often the policy makers fails in giving special preferences and consideration to the natural rubber sector. In fact, as per the understanding of the WTO, there is no significant difference between the synthetic rubber and the natural rubber, as it considers both of them as inputs for rubber products, made through two different methods. Since rubber is considered as the non-agricultural commodity, often it becomes difficult for the natural rubber sector to enjoy the protectionism offered for the agricultural products.

Similarly Natural rubber lost its position in the negative list of items, which are restricted to be imported to India in 2001. It was moved from the items with limited imports to the Open General License list and thus allowing anyone to import any quantity of natural rubber after paying a particular amount of the total imports value as the customs duty. It must be mentioned that to overcome this scenario, central government prepared a list of commodities under “State Trading List” to prevent their tremendous flow to the India mainland. However since rubber is considered as an industrial output, it became difficult for the policy makers to incorporate rubber into this particular list, leading to further degradation of the natural rubber sector in the country.

7 Domestic Policies and Tariff Framework of India:

Domestic policies regarding the foreign trade of natural rubber is prepared by the Ministry of Commerce after receiving appropriate suggestions and inputs from the Rubber Board of India and other related nodal agencies in the country. The existing policies for the foreign trade of natural rubber is popularly known as the EXIM policies, which were formulated at the beginning of this millennium. As per the policies, any individual/party can export the natural rubber produced in this country to some other States after getting the prior approval of the rubber board. Once the request is submitted to the rubber board, it will issue a registration certificate which could be later used for the trade of natural rubber. Once the registration is done, the seller can find and locate a potential purchaser with the help of business directories, listings published by the governments, Indian embassies in various countries, trade representatives in various consulates etc.

In the case of imports, no prior licensing process is involved. After the payment of the prescribed amount of duties and tariffs, the companies can import natural rubber from foreign sellers and exporters. The import duty is fixed based on the domestic prices prevailing in the market for the preceding three years along with considering the domestic market conditions and international rubber prices. In a similar fashion, natural rubber can be imported through open channel and under the provisions of Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPS) provisions. There is yet another scheme to encourage the local rubber manufacturing industries in the country through the scheme of Duty Exemption Entitlement Certificate (DEEC). It is an advanced licensing mechanism whereby the parties will be allowed to import natural rubber as a raw material, provided the export back manufactured, final goods as mentioned in the Standard Input Output Norms (SION).

Recently, Rubber Board of India has also kick-started a programme to brand the domestically produced natural rubber to maintain a special demand for the commodity and to promote its superior quality that it enjoys among the other competitors. For this purpose, the rubber exported from the country is branded as Indian Natural Rubber (INR) and as a part of the promotion, all the exports across the borders are branded under this name. Rubber Board also runs various promotional activities along with various business meets and commerce promotion festivals across the globe by bringing the prospective sellers in the country and potential foreign buyers under a single umbrella.

4. CONCLUSION:

The foreign trade of natural rubber was analysed under the purview of the comparative advantage theory of David Ricardo, with substantial field data, to look at how the theory formed the basis for most of the free trade systems exiting in place and how this theory misrepresents the reality of the natural rubber sector. David Ricardo’s theory simplified the assumptions and considered everything as static and closed. When such a misrepresented theory is used to dictate the future of an important area of the Indian agricultural sector, it will have serious repercussions over the lives of the people who are involved within. Natural rubber is often neglected in the larger picture of policy framework creation and legislation due to the fact that it is only produced in the few pockets of the country. However, the role of natural rubber as a component or a raw material in several industries across the country points to the fact that it’s not a worthy risk to be taken by marginalizing the rubber farmers as well as treating it as a regional issue. The central as well as the State governments must spend more time and resources for the welfare of this sector, which forms the major share of income for nearly one crore farmers across the country. None of the developed economies in the world have grown with trade liberalism and free flow of goods; rather they flourished under the warmth of protectionism and on the foundations of national preferences over the international trade interests. From the tariff-loving Lincoln of United States to the father of modern day Germany Otto Von Bismarck, from the early 14th century Spaniards to the Thatcher government of Britain, all practised trade protectionism. Though this paper doesn’t call for a complete ban on the free trade, there must be at least some form of restrictions to protect the sensitive sectors like natural rubber so as to maintain the welfare of the farmers and small-scale traders, who earns their daily bread from it. It is good to remember that free trade is only beneficial for the dominant country and when the inferior nations move in the path of the free trade and liberalization, utter care must be taken.

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Received on 23.02.2018 Modified on 12.04.2018

Res. J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018; 9(2): 436-443.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00075.X