At a time when the country was reeling under the pressure of declared and undeclared nakabandi pushing the export and import sectors to an almost standstill, and sending the whole of the economy into the hands of profiteers and black-marketers, a colleague of mine daringly came out with a book on global trade and marketing, of course, with a Nepali perspective.

Bijendra Man Shakya, current Associated Professor of Economics at the Tribhuvan University, has a long drawn experience working in media and academia, specialising in the areas of trade and business. A 366 page volume Global Trade and Marketing: A Nepalese Perspective contains 24 chapters spread among four parts. He prefers to call it a textbook or a handbook because his targeted readers are students of economics and business studies, and local businessmen interested in gaining knowledge and understanding on how foreign trade works in Nepal. The section on trade procedures and documentation will be particularly useful for those interested in export and import business.

The primary feature of the book is its simplicity. Save a few graphs and notations, there is nothing to be scared of. Otherwise, the branch of economics has deceptively turned into the field of mathematics with  foot long equations and arcane notations. This is more so when one turns the pages of international trade and business. Another feature of the book is the descriptive treatment of the subject matter. Shakya has worked hard to describe as simply as possible what global trade and marketing is, and on why things have remained the way they have, and continue to shape of the trends of tomorrow.  Although international trade is very much linked to international politics, Shakya has refrained from treading into unchartered waters of the politics of international trade.

“Trade, not aid” is the mantra of development. The wealth the rulers in Kathmandu accumulated during the Middle Ages is primarily because it acted as an inter-pot trade between India and Tibet. The arrival of ships and railways together with political tensions beyond the Himalayas, pushed the rulers to introduce and maintain an autarkic Kathmandu. This had a dwindling effect on the then Kathmandu as well as on Nepal. In the past, if Kathmandu was Nepal, in the present day, Nepal is Kathmandu.

If this scribe has read history carefully, the trade treaty signed by Prime Minister Chandra Sumsher Janga Bahadur Rana in 1923 with the then British India is the starting point for Nepal’s economic downfall. The structure of trade has hardly deviated from what PM Chandra Sumsher conceived—that is, scoffing off custom taxes from the exportation and importation of goods and services. Had this not been the case, why would Nepal have bilateral trade agreements with just 17 countries? A single page of the book is devoted to Nepal-China trade relations (p183). This is not because Shakya did not find any information; it is rather a reflection of how Nepal’s economy, which again translated into international trade, is overwhelmingly dependent on India. One can fairly imagine a situation of international trade in a country where “gold” constituted the second largest (14 percent) imported items after petroleum products (49 percent). What is the point of grumbling over the widening of trade deficits?

International trade is getting pretty complicated. It is no more confined to trade of goods and services; there is no trade on intellectual property rights. With the current pace of labour exports from Nepal, we may soon need a different treatment of international trade—focusing on overseas employment. At the very least, one can observe some diversification happening in the front of labour exports than in the field of goods exportation.

Shakya has sought to blend together the concepts of trade (economics) with the concepts of marketing (management) in an unsuccessful manner. This is reflected by Michael Porter, guru on strategic management, being quoted in only one section of the whole book, that too in a passing mention. Due credit is given to Prof Porter for his paradigm shift—from comparative advantage to competitive advantage, when it comes to trade and economic development. It is innovation that determines trade and economic development. To borrow his words, it is risks of failure rather than rewards of success that keep people innovative. The central take away from the book is: Nepal is a long way from being innovative.