India Trade with South and South East Asia: Scope for Further Cooperation

This paper briefly examines the current status of India’s trade relations with two developing sub-regions of Asia, namely, South Asia and Southeast Asia. South Asia covers seven countries who have recently loosely grouped themselves under “South Asian Regional Cooperation” (SARC) and are likely to formally launch “South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation” (SAARC) in December 1985. These countries are : Bangladesh, Bhutan , India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Southeast Asia covers five countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. This paper explores the progress and prospects for “South-South” cooperation in trade and trade-related areas. For analysing trade relations, we have employed two analytical measures, namely, (I) Kojima indices of trade intensity; and (ii) Wadhva index of trade reciprocity. This paper indicates that good scope for further cooperation in trade and trade related areas exists both between India and other South Asian Countries as well as between India and Southeast Asian Countries. However, considering the geopolitical and structural economic realities, we have recommended that the multilateral approach being followed under “SARC” (where trade cooperation is not being currently considered) should be supplemented by carefully formulated moves/further moves for bilateral cooperation in trade and trade-related matters. We have also recommended taking strong diplomatic initiatives by India to strengthen trade cooperation with the fastest growing ASEAN region especially through bilateral moves. We have also pleaded for strengthening trade cooperation between India and a Newly Industrializing Country of Southeast Asia, namely, South Korea.