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    Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: With Special Studies on indian Industry
    Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: With Special Studies on indian Industry
    Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: With Special Studies on indian Industry
    Ebook432 pages4 hours

    Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: With Special Studies on indian Industry

    By Gordhan Saini

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    About this ebook

    This book is aimed at researchers and students at graduate and post-graduate level in the field of economics and international trade. The book is written against the backdrop of sluggish progress of multilateral trade negotiations under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime which has provided impetus to the signing of regional/bilateral trade agreements the world over. This book examines the prospects and impact of regional economic cooperation in the South Asia region using various approaches; and focuses specifically on the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). The book also includes special studies on Indian industries: pharmaceuticals, textiles and clothing, and traditional (i.e. lock, brassware and glassware) industries in north India.
    • Provides a detailed analysis of the prospects and impact of regional economic cooperation in South Asia through alternative approaches
    • Draws on the author’s rich experience in the field of economics and trade to assess the prospects and impact of RTA/FTA
    • Contributions are presented from highly knowledgeable and rich experienced researchers in the field
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherElsevier Science
    Release dateDec 7, 2011
    ISBN9781780633305
    Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia: With Special Studies on indian Industry
    Author

    Gordhan Saini

    Dr Gordhan K. Saini currently is an assistant professor at the School of Management and Labour Studies of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He completed his MBA, PGDRD and PhD degrees, and then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship from Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. He has over eight years’ experience in development project implementation, management teaching and research and industry including as an academic associate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

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      Prospects of Regional Economic Cooperation in South Asia - Gordhan Saini

      informative.

      Part I

      Regional economic cooperation in South Asia

      1

      Regional trade agreements: trends, taxonomy and motivation

      Abstract:

      This chapter discusses the proliferation of RTAs, their growth trends, various forms of RTAs, motivation to form them and preconditions/principles for successful regional integration.

      Key words

      regional trade agreement

      South Asia

      economic cooperation

      Proliferation of regional trade agreements in the world economy

      In the last four decades the developing countries have become more visible on the global stage, as their share of world trade increased from around one-fifth in 1960 to one-third in 2004 at a time when global trade as a whole was increasing to unprecedented levels. In every region, exports outpaced the growth of output and increased as a share of GDP (gross domestic product). Various rounds of multilateral trade negotiations combined with structural economic reforms, undertaken throughout the world, ushered in the sustained reduction in border protection that made this growth possible. The World Trade Organization (WTO), formed in 1994, consolidated an evolving system of rules based on non-discrimination among trading partners, a cornerstone of the multilateral system. However, there is another significant trend in the trading system which is rapidly gaining momentum and creating a very different set of rules: the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) among a group of countries that reduce barriers to trade on a reciprocal and preferential basis for those in the group (World Bank, 2005). According to Crawford and Fiorentino (2005), for some WTO members preferential trade comprised over 90 per cent of their total trade. Schiff and Winters (1998) stated that some 55–60 per cent of world trade now occurs within such trade blocs. This evidence suggests that the unconditional most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment required by Article I of the WTO’s charter applies to less than half, or perhaps even less than 10 per cent, of world trade.

      In 1948 when GATT (the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) became operational there were effectively no RTAs in the world. There were systems of trade preferences, most notably the Commonwealth preferences agreed at the 1932 Ottawa conference, but no formal RTAs. However, in the past there had been extensive regional agreements in Europe, centered on the UK-France Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1870 (Lazer, 1999; Estevadeordal et al., 2002). This treaty extended to each party in the agreement the benefits of any subsequent negotiation with third parties (what today we call MFN), and became the cornerstone of a complex system of interlinked bilateral agreements in Europe, many of which subsequently attempted to be exclusionary of other parties despite the intent of the original treaty. This system grew extensively throughout Europe prior to 1913, but the war effectively ceased its growth. Importantly, the US position during this period was one of hostility to regional agreements, which were seen as a central element of colonial power centered on Europe and from which the United States had been excluded since independence. In 1947 regional agreements were touched on only lightly in the negotiation of the GATT articles. Article XXIV allowed members to participate in regional agreements under the two conditions that broadly all trade between parties would be covered (usually interpreted as covering at least 80 per cent of trade) and that no barriers should be raised against third parties as a regional agreement took effect. Article XXIV was also intended to deal with cases of the dissolution of nation-states (such as the 1905 separation of Sweden and Norway), and to cover new trade agreements between existing states (Whalley, 2008).

      However, the situation has changed substantially since 1947 as far as regional agreements are concerned. The so-called champion of multilateralism for the first four decades of GATT went regional with Canada in 1987, and was later trilateralized into NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) in 1991.¹ Since 2000 the United States has concluded free trade agreements (FTAs) with Australia, Chile, Jordon, Oman, Morocco, Singapore, Peru and the six Central American parties to CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement – Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). The United States is presently negotiating FTAs with a dozen or so further countries, including Korea, Panama, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the Andean Community (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela), the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and the SACU (South African Customs Union) countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland).² The European Union (EU), whose formation under the 1957 Treaty of Rome provided one of the major elements of escalation of regionalism in the system, has also seen a sharp rise recently in its regional agreements. In the early 1990s development efforts focused on aid and assistance, primarily to former European colonies, were shifting to providing a trade, investment and legal framework for European companies to do business in these countries (Kaya, 2006). EU agreements cover intellectual property, labor practices, competition policy, investment, culture and the movement of persons to the European Union; and take various names such as cooperation agreements, association agreements and framework agreements. In some cases they are phased agreements, seen as part of possible eventual accession to the European Union, in others they are stand-alone agreements. Some recent examples are the Cotonou Agreement (formerly the Lomé Agreement) with 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific former colonies in 2000, and agreements with Algeria, Chile, Jordon and Lebanon in 2002; Egypt, Korea and Bangladesh in 2001; Syria in 2004; and Iran in 2005.³ All these are in addition to the regional arrangement, which has seen the enlargement of the European Union to 25 member states (Whalley, 2008).

      The pace of new regional arrangements in other parts of the world has been equally fast. Singapore has signed many cooperation agreements that go well beyond conventional trade agreements – it currently has 11. Singapore is also involved in negotiations with Bahrain, Canada, Egypt, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) negotiations with China, Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan (for extending a previous agreement) and Korea.⁴ Japan has concluded a series of agreements with Singapore, ASEAN and others. Quite rapidly after China’s entry into the WTO, East Asia experienced a massive domino effect with dozens of new RTAs being announced, negotiated and signed (Baldwin, 2006). China has concluded regional agreements and deeper cooperation agreements with Hong Kong, Macau, ASEAN, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Pakistan and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and is negotiating with India, Singapore, Thailand, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), East Asia (Japan, Korea), Brazil, Mexico, Peru, SACU, Mercosur (Common Market of the South) and Iceland. Following this trend, after liberalization of the economy in 1991 India also entered into a number of bilateral RTAs with countries such as Afghanistan, Chile, Sri Lanka and Thailand; comprehensive economic cooperation agreements (CECAs) with countries such as Singapore and Korea; and 15 similar agreements are at negotiation

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