During the last decade, SouthAsia's five largest countries - India, Pakistan, SriLanka, Bangladesh and Nepal - have been implementing tradepolicy reforms, gradually moving their economies away fromprotectionism toward greater trade openness and globaleconomic integration. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, thefour mainland countries began to follow the liberalizingcourse on which Sri Lanka had embarked in the late 1970s.Each country faces differing opportunities to exploit andresistances to overcome. Because many of their circumstancesand choices are similar, however, this paper seeks to assesstheir situations collectively as well as separately. Many ofits findings are broadly applicable. So, with allowances forhistoric, economic and social differences, are many of itspolicy recommendations. The bulk of the report describes keyaspects of the current trade regimes in the Jive largestSouth Asian states and the policies and practices that haveproduced the systems now in place. It principally focuses ontraditional trade policies which affect imports and exportsi.e. tariffs, non-tariff barriers, anti-dumping, exportpolicies, and to a limited extent aspects of sanitary andtechnical regulations that affect trade. All of these arestill major issues of concern and debate in South Asia. Thereport does not attempt to describe where the South Asiancountries stand on newer trade policy issues which areprominent in World Trade Organization negotiations, such astrade in services, intellectual property, governmentprocurement and Customs valuation. The report also does notattempt to place the South Asian countries' tradepolicies in the context of their trade and other aspects oftheir economic performance. Its purpose is rather to provideup-to-date information about, and interpretations of, thecurrent trade policies it covers, with the idea that thisshould provide starting points for further applied economicresearch on useful and relevant topics, as well as points ofreference and factual information for discussion and debate.Nevertheless, the report does assess, on theoretical andempirical grounds, the appropriateness of the policiesdescribed. Conclusions and suggestions for change aregenerally summarized at the end of each stocktaking section.This summary, in condensing the work of stocktaking,highlights the key issues that all or most of the countrieshave addressed and need to pursue further. To reinforce theoperational nature of those findings, the summary deals withthe recommendations next, as an immediate continuation ofthe central policy questions. It then reviews trade policiesin three key sectors- agriculture, fertilizers, and textilesand clothing.
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