Bangkok Agreement and BIMSTEC: Crawling Regional Economic Groupings in Asia

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dc.creatorKelegama, Saman
dc.date.accessioned2018-02-20T09:52:32Z
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-02T09:23:53Z
dc.date.available2018-02-20T09:52:32Z
dc.date.available2024-04-02T09:23:53Z
dc.date.created2018-02-20T09:52:32Z
dc.date.issued2001
dc.description.abstractBoth the Bangkok Agreement (BA) and Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) have offered opportunities for economic cooperation in the Asian region. Four countries that are (or were) associated with the former are members of the latter. The BA (formed in 1975) is a preferential trading arrangement (PTA) whereas BIMSTEC (formed in 1997) is a sectoral cooperation arrangement, but has announced its intention of moving to a PTA in the future. However, the results of both regional economic groupings have so far not been impressive. The BA did not produce the desired results due to inherent shortcomings in the Agreement and the ineffectiveness of the preferential system, inter alia: a) exclusion of nontariff barriers from the preferences; b) low product coverage by the preferential tariffs; and c) low preferential margins. Moreover, the PTA was not combined with direct measures for sectoral cooperation. Although the BIMSTEC emphasizes the latter, for these to be effective in the absence of a PTA, there has to be a high degree of commitment to the regional group by member countries, harmonization of standards, and an institutional framework. All these requirements are lacking in the BIMSTEC at present. BIMSTEC could have become a PTA if Thailand and Myanmar joined the BA but regional geo-politics and commitment to ASEAN have prevented this process. Surprisingly, BIMSTEC is considering a new PTA when a mechanism already exists under the BA. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
dc.identifierhttp://172.16.21.42/handle/123/25
dc.identifierJournal of Asian Economics 12 (2001); 105–121
dc.identifierJournal of Asian Economics 12 (2001)
dc.identifier.urihttp://172.16.30.46:4000/handle/789/4603
dc.languageen
dc.subjectRegionalism
dc.subjectEconomic integration
dc.subjectInternational trade
dc.titleBangkok Agreement and BIMSTEC: Crawling Regional Economic Groupings in Asia
dc.typeArticle
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