While it is commonly accepted that multilateral liberalization will bring the greatest global gains from liberalization, regional agreements may be much more feasible in the short term. The dictum from the traditional trade theory on the superiority of unilaterally applied free trade for a small...

The Asian economies have become an epitome of "trade as an engine of growth" during the past several decades as they have been expanding economic and human development, using trade as a ladder. Most of the economies have become highly integrated into the world economy, either through direct...

The global economic crisis of 2008 has opened some old questions related to limits of export-oriented growth, including in the Asian and Pacific reiong, In that context, stronger regional integration has been put forward as one of the alternative sources of growth. This volume looks at a...

This introductory chapter presents the research questions that were explored in the study and describes the structure of the book.

This publication brings together the main research outputs delivered under a common theme "Regional trade agreements and international production networks" of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT) research programme, Phase II (2008-2010). The study was divided into...

Chapter V specifically emphasizes India’s recent initiatives towards entering into PTAs with East and South-East Asian countries. The chapter critically analyses the depth of PTAs between India and important players in IPNs in order to decide whether they contain the necessary coverage and...

Chapter VI synthesizes the findings and key messages emerging from this study and presents policy recommendations with regard to fostering IPN participation by countries that are still lagging behind. The recommendations hold important implications for India and other developing Asian countries...

While the IPN phenomenon has accelerated trade and investment linkages between countries in East and South-East Asia, the remainder of the region has not matched those countries in this process. The objective of this study is to explore the reasons for this by using India’s performance in the...

This publication aims to point out how services sector reforms have benefited the poor, and more generally, how regulatory reforms in services have increased the opportunites for more inclusive growth.