IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/soasur/v22y2015i1p78-106.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

SAARC Geopolitics and Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Pratiksha Chaturvedi
  • Zaki Hussain
  • Biswajit Nag

Abstract

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region is bestowed with geographical, historical and cultural continuity and yet it remains one of the least integrated regions of the world. This article attempts to analyse the factors inhibiting the economic integration of the region. The intra-SAARC trade is analysed in view of the existence of a free trade agreement between the member nations. The socio-development, infrastructural and economic indicators of the nations are also compared. The reasons for the existence of mistrust and hostility between the SAARC countries are discussed, from India’s evident dominant position in the group as a cause for insecurity among other members to the political standoffs between the member nations. While there exists immense potential for greater economic integration and gains from trade, the lack of basic transport-transit connectivity, technical harmonisation and non-tariff barriers are found to reinforce trade costs and inhibit legal trade. Ensuring better connectivity is recognised as a prerequisite by the nations unanimously; however, their political differences have kept them away from making much headway in this regard.

Suggested Citation

  • Pratiksha Chaturvedi & Zaki Hussain & Biswajit Nag, 2015. "SAARC Geopolitics and Trade," South Asian Survey, , vol. 22(1), pages 78-106, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soasur:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:78-106
    DOI: 10.1177/0971523117708963
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0971523117708963
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0971523117708963?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Biswajit Nag & Anisha Nandi, 2006. "Analysing India.s Trade Dynamics vis-É-vis SAARC Members Using the Gravity Model," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 7(1), pages 83-98, March.
    2. Anjali Ramakrishnan & Poornima Varma, 2014. "Do free trade agreements promote intra-industry trade? The case of India and its FTAs," International Journal of Trade and Global Markets, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(2), pages 129-144.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Priyanshi Chauhan, 2021. "Power Trade in South Asia: Developing A Framework Based on Case Studies of Power Trading Arrangements in Europe and Asia," South Asian Survey, , vol. 28(2), pages 263-293, September.
    2. Khanindra Ch. Das, 2017. "International Connectivity Initiatives by China and India: For the Developing Countries," South Asian Survey, , vol. 24(2), pages 101-116, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sakshi Aggarwal & Debashis Chakraborty, 2022. "Which Factors Influence India’s Bilateral Intra-Industry Trade? Cross-Country Empirical Estimates," Working Papers 2260, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    2. Vinko Zaninoviæ, 2022. "The intra-industry trade dynamics in CEE countries: The role of trade agreements," Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci/Proceedings of Rijeka Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business, vol. 40(1), pages 129-145.
    3. Sakshi Aggarwal & Debashis Chakraborty, 2020. "Is there any relationship between Marginal Intra-Industry Trade and Employment Change? Evidence from Indian Industries," Working Papers 2044, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    4. Bhattacharyya Ranajoy & Banerjee, Tathagata, 2006. "Does the Gravity Model Explain India Direction of Trade? A Panel Data Approach," IIMA Working Papers WP2006-09-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    5. Siyakiya, Puruweti, 2017. "The impact of technical regulations on trade: Evidence from South Africa," MPRA Paper 76757, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Justyna Lapinska, 2014. "Determinants of Intra-Industry Trade in Agricultural and Food Products between Poland and EU Countries," DANUBE: Law and Economics Review, European Association Comenius - EACO, issue 3, pages 159-172, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:soasur:v:22:y:2015:i:1:p:78-106. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.