IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/pugtwp/331169.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Desirable is the South Asian Free Trade Area? A Quantitative Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Bandara, Jayatilleke S.
  • Yu, Wusheng

Abstract

The proliferation of preferential trading agreements (PTAs) in different regions of the world has been a significant development over the last two decades or so. South Asian countries are slowly moving towards a South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) in recent years. The desirability of SAFTA has been questioned by some observers recently. Do necessary conditions exist for a successful PTA in South Asia? Will SAFTA create gains for its members or not? Is it better for South Asian countries to promote non-discriminatory trade liberalisation rather than promote SAFTA? Does SAFTA encourage unilateral trade liberalisation in the South Asian region? The main objective of this paper is to address some of the above questions, especially the desirability of SAFTA, using trade data and a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. From the existing empirical and theoretical studies, we have identified three viewpoints on the desirability (or viability) of SAFTA: pessimistic, optimistic, and moderate. Our discussion of the necessary conditions for forming a SAFTA, and the present political climate in South Asia seem to support the pessimistic view. Results from two policy scenarios (unilateral liberalisation and preferential liberalisation) confirm the pessimistic view by showing that unilateral liberalisation would benefit South Asia countries much more than preferential liberalisation. In fact, under preferential liberalisation, small countries in the region would gain little or even lose.

Suggested Citation

  • Bandara, Jayatilleke S. & Yu, Wusheng, 2003. "How Desirable is the South Asian Free Trade Area? A Quantitative Assessment," Conference papers 331169, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:pugtwp:331169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/331169/files/1519.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roberts, Donna, 1998. "Preliminary Assessment of the Effects of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Trade Regulations," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(3), pages 377-405, September.
    2. Coleman, Jonathan R. & Payne, Warren S., 2003. "Factors Affecting Trade in Mexican Imports of Poultry Meat from the United States," Working Paper ID Series 15884, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Industries.
    3. Wohlgenant, Michael K. & Haidacher, Richard C., 1989. "Retail to farm linkage for a complete demand system of food commodities," Technical Bulletins 312312, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    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. Saurabh Kumar Bharti & Syeedun Nisa, 2023. "Evaluation of the Impact of Regional Trade Agreements on Indian Exports," Journal of Asian Economic Integration, , vol. 5(1), pages 51-63, April.

    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. Unnevehr, Laurian J., 2000. "Food safety issues and fresh food product exports from LDCs," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 231-240, September.
    2. Dixit, Praveen M. & Josling, Timothy E. & Blandford, David, 2001. "The Current Wto Agricultural Negotiations: Options For Progress; Synthesis," Commissioned Papers 14623, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    3. Kaiser, Harry M., 1995. "An Analysis of Generic Dairy Promotion in the United States," Research Bulletins 122997, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    4. A. M. Azzam, 1992. "Testing The Competitiveness Of Food Price Spreads," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 248-256, May.
    5. Dent, Siobahn K. & Piggott, Roley R. & O'Donnell, Christopher J. & Griffith, Garry R., 2003. "Does Excluding Cross-commodity Interactions Matter? Beef and Lamb in Australia," 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia 57859, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    6. Spencer Henson & Rupert Loader, 1999. "Impact of sanitary and phytosanitary standards on developing countries and the role of the SPS Agreement," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 355-369.
    7. Carambas, Maria Cristina D.M., 2005. "Analysis of Marketing Margins in Eco-Labeled Products," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24600, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Tangermann, Stefan, 2001. "Has The Uruguay Round Agreement On Agriculture Worked Well?," Working Papers 14586, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    9. Inaba, Masaru & Nutahara, Kengo, 2009. "The role of investment wedges in the Carlstrom-Fuerst economy and business cycle accounting," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(3), pages 200-203, December.
    10. Lynch, Lori, 2001. "Migration Of Exotic Pests: Phytosanitary Regulations And Cooperative Policies To Protect U.S. Ecosystems And Agricultural Interests," Working Papers 28548, University of Maryland, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    11. Unknown, 2004. "U.S. Agriculture And The Free Trade Area Of The Americas," Agricultural Economic Reports 33995, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Thornsbury, Suzanne, 1999. "Political Economy Determinants Of Technical Barriers To U.S. Agricultural Exports," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21499, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Reed, Albert J. & Elitzak, Howard & Wohlgenant, Michael K., 2002. "Retail-Farm Price Margins And Consumer Product Diversity," Technical Bulletins 33573, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    14. Lee, Hanbin & Sexton, Richard J. & Sumner, Daniel A., 2021. "Economics of Mandates on Farm Practices: Lessons from California’s Proposition 12 Regulations on Pork Sold in California," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313920, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Wang, Ping & Kinnucan, Henry W. & Duffy, Patricia A., 2017. "Effects of China's Rising Labor Costs on the World Cotton Market," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258431, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Lichtenberg, Erik & Lynch, Lori, 2006. "Exotic Pests and Trade: When Is Pest-Free Status Certification Worthwhile?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 52-62, April.
    17. Diao, Xinshen & Robinson, Sherman & Somwaru, Agapi & Tuan, Francis, 2002. "Regional and National Perspectives of China’s Integration into the WTO: A Computable General Equilibrium Inquiry," Conference papers 331002, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Kinnucan, Henry W., 2003. "Optimal generic advertising in an imperfectly competitive food industry with variable proportions," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 143-158, October.
    19. Donna Roberts, 1999. "Analyzing technical trade barriers in agricultural markets: Challenges and priorities," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(3), pages 335-354.
    20. Lee, Hanbin & Sexton, Richard J. & Sumner, Daniel A., 2022. "Government Restrictions on Food Available to Consumers: Economics of Regulations that Limit Farming Practices for Products Sold within Jurisdictions, with Application to California’s 2022 Pork Rules," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322438, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    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:ags:pugtwp:331169. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/gtpurus.html .

    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.