An in-depth study of India's export of leather accessories to asean countries with special reference to leather saddlery and harness

Trade is not a recent phenomenon. People throughout the world have always wanted to new destinations and buy things made by others. Global trade started liberalization right through the seventies and eighties of the last century. From 4 billion US dollar, global import of leather and leather products increased to an estimated 70 billion US dollar in 2000. Globally, these years also witnessed major structural changes in this sector. Manufacture of leather products such as shoes, garments and assorted leather goods migrated from industrialised countries of the West to the developing countries of the East in a big way, primarily motivated by the consideration of the cost production. The difference in wage levels was too vast to be bridged by any technological improvement, particularly in the light of the labour intensity of many of the leather based industries. ASEAN has become a strategic partner of India and as the business and trade links between the two has been on an all time high nearly one quarter of India's exports is going to the ASEAN and a tremendous scope exists for increasing exports to the ASEAN.