India's Livestock Sector Trade: Opportunities and Challenges Under WTO Regime

The livestock sector has emerged as one of the important drivers of agricultural growth and diversification in India. The livestock sector in India has grown at an annual rate of 4-5 per cent during the past two decades. The rising global demand for livestock products, various global trade negotiations and reforming domestic markets in India, have substantially expanded international markets for livestock products. Such developments offer enormous opportunities to India to increase exports of its livestock products. However, apprehensions are being raised about the ability of Indian livestock farmers, a majority of whom are small and marginal, in sharing the benefits of emerging opportunities, under the liberalized trade era. In addition, non-tariff barriers like stringent sanitary and photo-sanitary (SPS) standards, technical barriers to trade (TBT), anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties, etc. are emerging as the major constraints in tapping the benefits of export potential of the livestock products. Besides, concerns have also been expressed about the necessity to improve and expand the supply capacity to augment exports of livestock products from India. A deeper understanding of the determinants of export performance of livestock sector in India would contribute towards building the development strategy of this sector. This publication throws lights on these issues, and provides strategies to harness the potential of livestock sector in India.