Regional Integration in South Asia

Research reports are outputs of externally funded as well as internally resourced projects. They provide readers with the overview and background, comprehensive information on and detailed analysis of various components of research in a reader-friendly format.

Multimodal Connectivity for Shared Prosperity: Towards Facilitating Trade in the BBIN Subregion
This report seeks to understand political economy challenges in implementing multimodal connectivity initiatives in the BBIN subregion. It reveals the potential impact of improved cross-border connectivity between and among the four countries on their economy and intra-regional trade. It identifies issues and challenges and policy and investment gaps that need to be addressed to achieve the subregion’s economic and trade potential.

Bridging the East Trade and Transport Connectivity in the Bay of Bengal Region
The present study seeks to capture the impact of implementation of the MVA in respect of livelihood, gender, infrastructure and trade facilitation. The study includes surveys of all the relevant types of stakeholders in the entire supply chain of selected products traded across 10 corridors of BBIN and Myanmar sub-region.

Linkages and Impacts of Cross-border Informal Trade in Agricultural Inputs in Eastern South Asia
This study captures some of key factors which are responsible for informal trade between India-Bangladesh and India-Nepal. Some of the key factors found in this study are differences in quality, prices and productivity, due to which both farmers and traders are involved in informal trade.

Connecting Corridors beyond Borders Enabling seamless connectivity in the BBIN sub-region
Better connectivity among the nations reduces the hurdles in the movement of goods, services, investment and passengers. Initiatives like the BBIN MVA will ease trade for landlocked as well as for the other nations of this sub-region. But trade is not the only thing that is going to be positively affected by this MVA because there will be political and social benefits and costs too when this agreement comes into force.

Benefits of the TIR Convention for the implementation of the BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement
This study analyses the benefits of TIR Convention to facilitate efficient movement of cargo vehicles across borders under the BBIN Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA). The study examines the role of various instruments of the TIR System in addressing the current transit and transport related challenges of the BBIN region and its benefits towards addressing these challenges by co-opting the TIR Convention.

Research reports are outputs of externally funded as well as internally resourced projects. They provide readers with the overview and background, comprehensive information on and detailed analysis of various components of research in a reader-friendly format.

Non-Tariff Measures to Food Trade in India A Case Study of Selected Ports
This project study identifies product and port-specific NTMs (to imports of selected agricultural, food and processed food items) from a specific group of countries into India. The study is based on field surveys to identify key barriers (process, procedural, regulatory, administrative, SPS and TBT) restricting India’s food trade with South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, and also selected trade imports from the United Kingdom. The project report focuses on six key trading posts: Attari, Agartala, Chennai, Mumbai, Panitanki, and Petrapole.

Mega Regional Trade Agreements and the Indian Economy: An Analysis of Potential Challenges and Opportunities
This study was undertaken, with support from Department For International Development (DFID) supported Knowledge Partnership Programme (KPP) (through IPE Global, New Delhi), to bring out the potential effects of three mega regional trade agreements (EU-ASEAN FTA, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) on the Indian economy and the opportunities India can take to address various challenges.

Consumers and Economic Cooperation: Cost of Economic Non-cooperation to Consumers in South Asia
This study analyse the consumer welfare impacts of regional trade liberalisation in South Asia. It enquires into the results of previous studies on this topic as well as attempts a quantitative assessment of potential consumer welfare gains from enhanced intra-regional trade. The study also includes the results from a perception survey which was conducted to ascertain the the opinions of key stakeholders in the region on the role and relative importance of consumer welfare in trade negotiations under SAFTA.
pp 168, #1207, Rs 250/US$25, ISBN: 978-81-8257-166-2

India’s Experiences On Preferential Trade Agreements
This study is a comprehensive extension of CUTS’ earlier work and evaluates India’s negotiating experiences on preferential trade agreements. It draws lessons from some select engagements such as like India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, India-Thailand Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement, India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. The study makes case based analyses of good practices highlighting ways of preparedness adopted by other countries.
pp 127, #1202, Rs 250/US$25, ISBN: 978-81-8257-162-4

Regional Trade Openness Index, Income Disparity and Poverty – An Experiment with Indian Data
This study aims to examine how much ‘open’ Indian states are with respect to international trade and then assesses to characterise three related aspects: (1) trade openness and incidence, depth and severity of poverty at the state level (rural and urban); trade openness and income inequality at the state level (rural and urban); (2) trade openness and industrial employment across industry types (workers and employees); and (3) trade openness and regional disparity. It should be noted that this study focuses primarily on finding the inter-linkage between trade openness at the state level and its implications for poverty.
pp 69, #0807, Rs 200/US$20, ISBN: 978-81-8257-102-0