India and Bimstec : An Analysis of India’s Trade Performance & Prospects

Since 1991, the Government of India has been pursuing a program of structural reforms aimed at stabilizing the economy and promoting reliance on market mechanisms. Bengal Initiative for BIMSTEC (Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) is one of many regional trade agreements that India has signed up to. It was formed with the idea of imparting greater economic cooperation among the member nations in the area of technology, transport and communications, energy, tourism, agriculture, fisheries and human resources development. In addition to the sectoral cooperation, BIMSTEC also wanted to strengthen cooperation in the areas of trade and investment. BIMSTEC brings the five members from the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and two members from the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations). The main objective of the paper is to analyze impact of sub-regional grouping on India's trade performance with special reference to BIMSTEC member nations, and to explore opportunities for economic cooperation between India and the other BIMSTEC countries. The paper is divided into four sections. First section gives brief description of basic framework, features, and priorities of BIMSTEC; section two presents review of specific studies conducted on BIMSTEC nations covering wide area of issues e.g., foreign collaborations, mutual / bi-lateral trade, technology, international competency, and also the nature & trend of foreign trade. In section three an attempt has been made to analyze India's trade with other BIMSTEC countries and also to analyze the impact of BIMSTEC agreements on Indo-BIMSTEC trade performance. Section four gives concluding remarks and attempts to identify areas of improvement in Indo-BIMSTEC trade performance