Pakistan-India Trade:

Recommendations

Info

Perspectives from India Pakistan. The losers would really be the Japanese or other exporters. But it is very important to be clear about that. The second thing that I learned, from the Sri Lankan businessman, was that the FTA allowed him and his business peers to have a certain amount of economies of scale so they could test their products outside Sri Lanka. Consider, for instance, their expansion into South India, particularly Tamil Nadu, with tea. Twenty years ago, you would never have thought of having Sri Lankan tea in India, because we were one of the biggest exporters and producers of tea. Now you do see that. Sri Lankan tea growers have now moved into the neighboring Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and established their brand names. So the economies of scale afforded by an FTA really do offer an opportunity for a smaller country to test its markets, and develop a little bit of skill, which then allows it to go out and compete in a totally different market. So these are two things, I would submit, that Pakistanis have to be aware of, and see how they can use. In the case of Sri Lanka, they also used the opening to increase tourism from India, and this could also conceivably apply to Pakistan. The point is not that tourism per se is likely to be important in the India-Pakistan context, but that business has to be alert and open to all kinds of new opportunities that might arise, and be ready to grab them. You have to have a positive attitude. My final point relates to new initiatives. Let me put it in two different ways. In thinking of any next steps beyond MFN, it will be useful to re-energize SAFTA (the South Asian Free Trade Agreement). For a long time SAFTA was handicapped by a fundamental constraint, the asymmetry in MFN status between Pakistan and India, because of Islamabad’s refusal to grant MFN to India. Once this asymmetry is removed through effective MFN status for India in Pakistan, the foundation will be set for SAFTA to progress with greater speed and effectiveness. One might anticipate substantial gains from that. And this would also provide political cover to those who are in favor of free trade versus those who are opposed in principle to this concept. SAFTA in a way provides the cover for doing this. As Professor Nabi (among others) argues elsewhere in this volume, fully implementing SAFTA could convert South Asia into a true crossroads. Looking even farther afield, South Asia is a potential crossroads not only to Central Asia, but also to Southeast Asia. This is a particularly | 57 |
Arvind Virmani opportune moment, because of the recent opening of Myanmar. So I would suggest that we should research the potential gains from this development and identify how one could move forward in transforming South Asia into a genuine crossroads to both Central and Southeast Asia. endnoTe 1. For this surprising record, see Arvind Virmani, “Accelerating and Sustaining Growth: Economic and Political Lessons,” IMF Working Paper WP/12/185, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, July 2012. | 58 |
Page 1 and 2:
Pakistan-India Trade: What Needs To
Page 3 and 4:
This publication marks a collaborat
Page 5 and 6:
Available from : Asia Program Woodr
Page 8 and 9:
| vii | Contents The Pakistan-india
Page 10 and 11:
The Pakistan-India Trade Relationsh
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17: The Pakistan-India Trade Relationsh
Page 28 and 29: Moving Toward Pakistan-India Trade
Page 40 and 41: Pakistan’s Trade with India: Thin
Page 56 and 57: BoX 2: The new (old) road to Kashmi
Page 62 and 63: Perspectives from India | 53 | ARVI
Page 64 and 65: Perspectives from India growth econ
Page 68 and 69: Managing India-Pakistan Trade Relat
Page 84 and 85: Additional Trade Challenges: Transp
Page 90 and 91: Product Code Additional Trade Chall
Page 106 and 107: What Can India and Pakistan Do To M
Page 116 and 117:
What Can India and Pakistan Do To M
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Non-Trade-Related Stakes of the Pak
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Recent Asia Program Publications Pa
Page 140 and 141:
Recent Asia Program Publications Ch
Page 142 and 143:
Recent Asia Program Publications Th
Page 144 and 145:
Woodrow Wilson Center Pakistan Scho
show all

Pakistan-India Trade:

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?