Trade Between SAARC and Other Asian Developing Countries

South-South trade is advocated as an important instrument to strengthen South-South economic cooperation. In the present international economic system, developing countries are not gaining much through their trade with developed countries. The deteriorating terms of trade and the functioning of International Monetary System work against the interest of the developing countries. As such, the gains from trade and technology are not distributed equally among developed and developing countries. Often developing countries become the loosing partner in trade. South possesses various resources in abundance. They can be used to produce and exchange goods among the developing countries. If the developing countries have more trade with each other, they can reduce their dependence on developed countries. Increasing south-south trade will be helpful to supply the goods at cheaper prices for the consumers in developing countries. SAARC, as a regional grouping of developing countries, is trying to promote intra-regional trade and trade with other developing countries. Through various SAARC summits, continuous efforts are taken for the expansion of trade within the region in particular and expansion of trade with other developing countries in general. An assessment of progress of intra-regional trade and trade with other Asian developing countries will help to know how far the objective of promotion of trade among the developing countries is achieved by the SAARC. In this context, this book makes an attempt to assess the progress in intra-regional trade in the SAARC and trade between SAARC and other Asian developing countries based on the time series data for a period of fifteen years, through various parameters. The analysis of the study points out the fact that the intra-regional trade forms a small proportion to the total trade. In many cases…the performance of inter regional trade is better than the performance of infra-regional trade. The findings of the study reveal the need to have more concrete efforts by the SAARC to expand intra-regional trade and trade with other Asian developing countries. The study provides important guidelines for the SAARC to have closer trade links within the region and with other developing countries.