Regionalism Debate: Repositioning SAFTA
Loading...
Date
2005
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Critics have pointed out that there is no rationale for a Regional Trade Agreement (RTA) in South Asia because there are limited complementarities in the region; major trading partners of the individual South Asian countries are located in the West etc. The latest World Bank report on the South Asia’s trade argues that an RTA in South Asia will lead to substantial trade diversion than trade creation and considers an RTA in the region as a stumbling bloc to multilateral trade liberalization. This argument needs re-examination and for this purpose it will be worthwhile first to revisit the theoretical debate on regionalism. This is done in the Section II followed by a discussion in Section III on the South Asian perspective of an RTA. Some concluding remarks are made in Section IV.
Description
Keywords
Regional Trade Agreements, Trade, SAARC, Regionalism, RTAs