{"id":224960,"date":"2023-02-03T20:24:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T14:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=224960"},"modified":"2023-02-20T14:35:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T09:05:40","slug":"trading-more-within-asia-makes-economic-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/trading-more-within-asia-makes-economic-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading more within Asia makes economic sense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cTrading more within Asia makes economic sense\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 3rd February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Trade and Economic relations across Asia<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– IMF has warned that global trade would slow down from 5.4% in 2022 to 2.4% in 2023. It calls for having a re-look at regional trade across Asia.<\/p>\n

What are some facts and statistics about trade South Asia- East Asia Trade?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A recently published paper in an IMF says that a strong base exists for South Asia trading more with dynamic East Asia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Since the 1990s, South Asia-East Asia trade<\/strong> has gathered pace. It is linked to India\u2019s trade re-aligning towards East Asia through its \u2018Look East\u2019 and \u2018Act East\u2019 policies<\/strong>, South Asia adopting reforms, and also China offshoring global supply chains to Asia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The total merchandise trade<\/strong> between South Asia and East Asia grew at about 10% annually between 1990 and 2018 to $332 billion in 2018.<\/p>\n

The free trade agreements<\/strong> linking economies in South Asia with East Asia may rise to 30 by 2030.<\/p>\n

Regional trade in Asia<\/strong> is recovering after the COVID-19 pandemic. It has opened opportunities for South Asia to participate in global value chains and services trade.<\/p>\n

What needs to be done for regional trade integration across Asia?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reforms in taxation structure<\/strong>– Regional trade integration across Asia can be encouraged by gradually reducing barriers<\/strong> to goods and services trade. Import tariffs and non-tariff measures <\/strong>have risen in several South Asian economies since the 2008 global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

Trade opening in South Asia should be calibrated with tax reforms<\/strong> as trade taxes account for much of government revenue in some economies.<\/p>\n

Finance for loss making sectors and re-training of workers is also essential to promote gains from trade.<\/p>\n

SEZs reforms<\/strong>– There is a need to improve the performance of special economic zones and invest in services SEZs to facilitate exports.<\/p>\n

South Asia has over 600 SEZs in operation.These SEZs have a variable record in terms of exports and jobs and fostering domestic linkages.<\/p>\n

SEZ reforms in South Asia require macroeconomic and political stability, good regulatory policies towards investors, reliable electricity and 5G broadband cellular technology, and also worker skills<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Comprehensive FTAs<\/strong>– These will eventually lead to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership<\/strong> to provide for a regional rules-based trade.<\/p>\n

South Asia is a latecomer to FTAs when compared to East Asia. But, it has made a start with the Japan-India FTA, the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA and the Pakistan-Indonesia FTA<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

South Asian economies need to improve tariff preference use<\/strong>. They need to be better prepared in navigating the complex rules of origin in FTAs<\/strong> and including issues relevant to global supply chains<\/strong> in future FTAs.<\/p>\n

Reinvented trade-focused BIMSTEC<\/strong>– It can facilitate stronger trade ties and support the interests of smaller members.<\/p>\n

It requires better resourcing its Secretariat, BIMSTEC FTA, trade capacity in smaller economies, and introducing dialogue partner status<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What is the way forward for better integration?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A narrower geographical coverage<\/strong> between South Asia and Southeast Asia may be a building block for trade integration<\/strong> across Asia. The larger economies should facilitate gains from trade to the smaller economies.<\/p>\n

There is a need for political will<\/strong> to implement pro-trade policies<\/strong> that can improve the lives of Asians.<\/p>\n

India is South Asia\u2019s largest economy and its G-20 presidency<\/strong> can be a good platform to initiate these changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cTrading more within Asia makes economic sense\u201d published in The Hindu on 3rd February 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements Relevance– Trade and Economic relations across Asia News– IMF has warned that global trade would slow down from 5.4% in 2022 to 2.4%… Continue reading Trading more within Asia makes economic sense<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-224960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1701325990},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}