ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the South Asia's trade regime focusing especially on structure, composition and trend of regional trade. The importance and forms of trade facilitation in the context of South Asia is thus multifaceted, given the mix of geostrategic positions of its member countries. The region can promote trade by formulating devices which will enhance intra-industry trade on the basis of the competitive advantages of each country in such areas as wages, technological structure, transportation cost, human and natural resources. Trade regimes of countries in South Asia have gone through significant changes over the recent years through liberalisation of tariff structure with increasingly deeper integration with the global economy. However, although bilateral trade relations among a number of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries have registered some growth over time, intra-regional trade in South Asia has continued to remain rather insignificant, particularly when compared to other regional trading blocs.
