This edition of the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report highlights the linkages between trade, investment, and climate change and examines the role of regional trade agreements and trade and transport facilitation measures in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It offers policy recommendations for ensuring that regional trade and investment policies are sustainable and able to address the worsening climate crisis.

Author: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Year: 2021

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Tags: South Asia, UNCTAD, Sustainable Development Goals, Free Trade Agreements

This edition of the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report looks at the impact of recent trends in trade on achieving sustainable development. The report includes a discussion of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that affect Nepal exports to its South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) partners. According to a diagnostic study, policymakers should analyze SPS measures in regional trade agreements to help them formulate policy reforms for streamlining non-tariff measures.

Author: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Year: 2019

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Tags: Nepal, UNCTAD, Sustainable Development Goals, Free Trade Agreements, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Non-Tariff Measures

This report takes an in-depth look at trade in South Asia and examines barriers that have held back trade in the subregion. It examines tariffs and para-tariffs, real and perceived non-tariff barriers, connectivity costs, and the broader trust deficit and outlines concrete steps for tapping trade potential through deeper integration. It offers policy recommendations that could help push key areas of trade that would be beneficial to all countries in the subregion.

Author: Sanjay Kathuria

Year: 2018

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Tags: Connectivity, Regional Cooperation, South Asia, Free Trade Agreements

The Bay of Bengal region is rising as an economic and strategic hub, with the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) playing a key role in promoting growth and development in the region. BIMSTEC is also being seen as a potential driver of integration between South Asia and Southeast Asia. Given Japan's relationship with BIMSTEC nations, this brief makes a case for deeper engagement between Japan and BIMSTEC. The benefits could include cooperation in infrastructure, connectivity, and energy projects. A free trade agreement between the two entities would also be mutually beneficial.

Author: Vindu Mai Chotani

Year: 2018

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Tags: ASEAN, Bangladesh, Bhutan, BIMSTEC, Connectivity, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Free Trade Agreements

This paper focuses on the impact of regional integration on development and poverty reduction in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic community. It examines economic growth, rapid trade, and investment expansion and looks at challenges presented by the deterioration in trade balances in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam. It also explores the role of regional integration in addressing the development gap in ASEAN countries.

Author: Amelia U. Santos-Paulino

Year: 2017

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Tags: ASEAN, Free Trade Agreements, Least Developed Countries, Myanmar, Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, WTO

A free trade agreement (FTA) does not aim to balance trade, but to work out a win-win situation for both producers and consumers in the FTA member countries. This policy brief By Dr. Saman Kelegama, released by the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade, looks at how Sri Lanka has benefited from a surplus in trade under the India-Sri Lanka FTA in six of the 17 years since the FTA came into force.

Author: Saman Kelegama

Year: 2017

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Tags: India, Sri Lanka, Free Trade Agreements, Trade

Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) is an open regional network composed of leading trade research institutions and think tanks across the Asia-Pacific region. The 2017 July issue of its newsletter features the benefits Sri Lanka could reap from its free trade agreement with India and the shaping of the digital trade agenda.

Author: Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade

Year: 2017

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Tags: Asia-Pacific, Free Trade Agreements, ICT, India, Sri Lanka, Trade Facilitation, UNESCAP

Most regional trade agreements now feature one or more measures for electronically exchanging trade-related information. These measures are becoming essential to maintaining trade competitiveness and enabling effective participation in cross-border e-commerce. This paper examines the extent to which measures enabling paperless trade are included in regional trade agreements (RTAs), such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-India Free Trade Agreement. India leads the region with the highest number of RTAs involving paperless trade measures. Asia-Pacific RTAs now increasingly cover specific areas of paperless trade such as electronic certificates of origin and sanitary and phytosanitary certificates.

Author: Yann Duval and Kong Mengjing

Year: 2017

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Tags: ADB, ASEAN, Free Trade Agreements, India, Regional Cooperation, Trade Facilitation, UNESCAP, WTO

The 2016 Asian Economic Integration Report reviews regional economic cooperation and integration in Asia and the Pacific, amidst the rising global uncertainty following the United Kingdom’s referendum on leaving the European Union and the U.S. election, slower-than-expected global economic recovery, and ongoing economic restructuring in the People’s Republic of China and growth moderation. Asia faces heightened uncertainty–trade growth decelerated in 2015, falling to 2.3% in 2015; subregional trade linkages continue to strengthen, but inter-subregional trade linkages weakened; and non-tariff measures have become major obstacles to trade. In South Asia, SASEC cooperation has improved access to key markets in smaller economies, reduced real trade costs and behind-the-border barriers to stimulate investment; and enabled cross-border power exchanges to ensure power supply affordability, reliability, and overall grid stability. However, the SASEC agenda needs to be framed within wider integration processes taking place in Asia in the next decade to enhance economic linkages, and harness the full potential of Asian integration.

Author: Asian Development Bank

Year: 2016

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Tags: ADB, ASEAN, Asia-Pacific, Development, FDI, Free Trade Agreements, Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, SASEC, Trade Facilitation, UNCTAD, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka

This Observer Research Foundation Issue Brief examines the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation as a regional grouping that is almost three decades old. It discusses trade arrangements such as the South Asian Preferential Trading Arrangement aimed towards a higher level of intraregional trade liberalization and economic cooperation, including the South Asia Free Trade Area for reduction of Customs duties on traded goods. The paper further studies areas of energy, connectivity, foreign direct investment, trade in services and subregional cooperation. The South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Program is offered as one of the steps in the direction of having a viable option for subregional cooperation.

Author: Jayshree Sengupta

Year: 2015

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Tags: Regional Cooperation, SAARC, Trade, Connectivity, Energy, FDI, Investment, Free Trade Agreements, Services, South Asia

This report reviews key industrial policy issue areas being negotiated in mega-regional free-trade agreements—in particular, the Trans-Pacific Partnership—and evaluates how possible outcomes will impact the international trading system. Reviewing areas where the mega-regionals may impose systemic constraints, including border measures, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and e-commerce measures, the report discusses a possible future framework for industrial policy that integrates the additional policy constraints and changes introduced by these agreements.

Author: Dan Ciuriak and Harsha V. Singh

Year: 2015

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Tags: Trade, Trade Facilitation, Free Trade Agreements

This book analyzes the performance and impact of the India-Sri Lanka free trade agreement over the past decade and suggests the way forward. India became an important source of imports for Sri Lanka immediately after the implementation of the free trade agreement.

Author: Asian Development Bank

Year: 2013

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Tags: Regional Cooperation, Trade Policy, India, Sri Lanka, Trade, Economic Cooperation, India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Free Trade Agreements, Services, Trade Facilitation, Exports, Import

This paper assesses the contribution of key institutions of regional cooperation and integration (RCI) in South Asia, and suggests ways in which the Asian Development Bank and other development partners can strengthen their support. It attempts to enhance understanding on the interplay between politics and RCI, including how good bilateral political relations or improvements have advanced RCI. With the overall political environment growing increasingly open to RCI, the paper suggests the time has come for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to consider strengthening the capacity of the SAARC Secretariat to meet the growing challenges and work load of managing the anticipated increase in RCI.

Author: Prabhu Ghate

Year: 2011

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Tags: Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, Development, SAARC, Trade, Services, Trade Facilitation, Energy, Free Trade Agreements, SAFTA, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Transport

In today's globalized world where the economic fates of nations are inevitably linked, weathering the present economic storm for Asia will increasingly depend on harnessing regional dynamics particularly on the trade front. Pan-Asian Integration: Linking East and South Asia is a rich volume of perspectives from leading thematic experts on regional patterns of trade and investment, trade-related infrastructure, trade facilitation, among others.

Author: Asian Development Bank

Year: 2009

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Tags: Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, Trade Policy, Transport, Trade Facilitation, Economics, India, Free Trade Agreements

The study examines the implication of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) on South Asian countries and on the region as a whole, employing both a quantitative and qualitative assessment on the outcomes of SAFTA. The research aims to provide support in the formulation of concrete policy measures for trade to ensure greater gains for the region, while at the same time mitigating potential negative impacts. Economic and social assessments through analytical tools and rational causal chain analysis further enrich the study.

Author: Asian Development Bank / United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Year: 2008

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Tags: Economic Corridor, Regional Cooperation, Regional Integration, SAFTA, Free Trade Agreements, Trade Facilitation, Transport, Services, SAARC, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka