Bangladesh conference to examine trade regimes in South Asia

How to mitigate the problem of trade diversions when countries outside South Asia are important sources of imports into the region? What lessons can Bangladesh learn from the experiences of India-Sri Lanka, India-Nepal bilateral trade deals? What could be consequences of other bilateral trading arrangements involving South Asian countries?

These and many other questions will be the focus of a regional seminar in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 24 March 2008. The theme of the seminar is 'Bilateral Free Trade Areas (FTAs), Regional Trading Arrangements (RTAs) and Unilateral Liberalisation: The South Asian Trade Highways', which will be held at the BRAC Centre Inn, Dhaka.

Participants at the conference, jointly organised by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) of the Commonwealth Secretariat, South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM) and CUTS-International India, will bring together leading policy-makers, business people and researchers from different countries in the region to discuss and come up with some concrete policy suggestions, which are likely to help resolve a number of existing debates in the related areas.

“The seminar is timely because South Asian countries are amongst the fastest growing economies and trade volumes in the region have increased rapidly during the past decade or so. Therefore, regionalism in South Asia and beyond is also likely to have important implications for these countries,” says Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Director of EAD.

Dr Coomaraswamy added that the conference is premised on the fact that there has been increasing interest in regional economic integration, and with the stalled Doha Round of WTO-led multilateral trade negotiations, such interest in regional trading arrangements in South Asia has increased.

The Commerce Adviser to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh, Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, will be Chief Guest in the inaugural session of the seminar.

The day-long event will conclude with the launch of a book: 'Trade-Development-Poverty Linkages: Reflections from Some Selected Asian and Sub-Saharan Countries' published by CUTS International based on a multi-country research project of 13 developing nations.

In the foreword to the book, Dr Coomaraswamy notes that the Secretariat attaches priority to promoting trade and development of member countries.

“From that perspective, I am pleased to see that some of the issues discussed and highlighted in the volume very closely reflect our views and concerns.”

Dr Mohammad Razzaque, an economic adviser at the Secretariat, who has contributed the overview chapter of the volume, will present the cross-country experiences on trade-poverty linkages.

Key Links:

• Country Profile: Bangladesh
• Economics and Trade