A Note on India’s Recent Involvement in Trade Blocs (2003–2009) - Regionally Sharpening the Multilateral Agenda ?

Julien Chaisse, World Trade Institute, Bern
Debashis Chakraborty, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
Biswajit Nag, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Abstract

Before the inception of WTO in 1995, India generally did not join any regional economic agreement to promote trade or to achieve any other goal, barring exceptions like the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Bangkok Agreement. However, in the period since the Cancun Ministerial (2003), it has entered into a number of preferential trade arrangements with Asian as well as non-Asian partners. Looking into India’s regional economic integration approach, the current analysis makes an attempt to identify the major determinants behind the shift in the country’s interest and the policy implications of this change.