Compiled features on recent developments in regional cooperation and integration in the SASEC region.
A fast-rising information technology-enabled services (ITES) is opening global opportunities for the millions of Indian college graduates that enter the workforce every year. In this article, Mr. Pritam Banergee, Senior Director for Corporate Public Policy (South Asia), Deutsche Post DHL, discusses the need for India’s government and businesses to focus on trade policy reform that ensure markets remain open for the ITES sector.
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Tags: ICT, India, Employment, Jobs, Services, South Asia, Tariffs, Technology, Trade Facilitation, Trade Facilitation Agreement, Trade Policy, WTO, Authorized Economic Operators
The deadline for adoption of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement passed on 31 July without reaching a consensus. WTO Director General Roberto Azevêdo reports "the remaining gaps are unbridgeable with the time that we have."
Tags: Trade Policy, Trade Facilitation, WTO
The Royal Kingdom of Bhutan hosted the Eighth Meeting of the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) Ministerial Council in Thimphu, Bhutan on 24 July 2014. Increasing regional economic cooperation to boost intra-regional trade among member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was the primary agenda.
Tags: Regional Cooperation, Trade Policy, SAARC
The World Economic Forum's Global Enabling Trade Report: 2014 offers a tool to monitor progress on implementing measures for the Trade Facilitation Agreement. It provides insights on how countries in South Asia can significantly gain from the $1 trillion boost the Trade Facilitation Agreement is expected to bring to the global economy.
Tags: Trade Facilitation, Trade Policy, Poverty Reduction, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, South Asia, Trade Facilitation Agreement, Trade, WTO
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General Roberto Azevêdo visited SASEC member countries Bangladesh on June 3, 2014 and Nepal on June 4-5, 2014, highlighting achievements of the recent Ninth WTO Ministerial Meeting held in Bali in December 2013, and discussing key trade issues.
Tags: Trade Facilitation, WTO, Trade Policy
The Bali Trade and Development Symposium (TDS) which took place on the sidelines of the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference discussed governmental and non-governmental stakeholder issues on trade and sustainable development and addressed challenges facing the multilateral trade system. Panelists emphasized the uncertain role of WTO negotiations and highlighted the need to focus on food security and renewable energy.
The question on whether India is an open or a closed economy depends on whether “openness”, according to Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is measured by trade policy or by actual trade outcomes. While India’s trade policy barriers were high prior to 1991, they have declined significantly to almost 10 percent today and have almost converged with tariffs in the rest of the world.
Tags: India, Trade Policy, Economy