Businessmen without borders

Whatever sensible economic activity you can think of, an activity that adds to the wealth of the country, there is a government rule that stifles or constrains it.

It is difficult to get any data on intra-SAARC trade flows after 1996. But from what is available we know that the share of intra-SAARC exports in total SAARC exports in 1996 was 4.25 percent, up from 3.16 percent in 1990. Similarly, intra-SAARC imports as a share of total SAARC imports was 4.06 percent in 1996, up from 1.91 percent in 1990. Our vision is to step up the share of intra-SAARC trade to 10 percent of the total SAARC trade. So, are we going to have a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) by 2001?

Compare the share of intra-SAARC exports in total exports from the SAARC region with figures from other free trade regimes. When the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was formalised, 70 percent of Canada´s trade already took place with the United States. Ditto for Mexico. Much the same is true of the European Union (EU) and the AFTA (Asean Free Trade Area). But in the case of SAARC, over a period of six years from 1990 to 1996, when all this intensive government-level activity on SAFTA was going on, this share increased by one percentage point. That amounts to 0.2 percent a year. If this figure is to touch 10 percent, it will take us 50 years at this rate. And if this figure is to reach 70 percent, it will take us 350 years. Yet, we satisfy a critical criterion for the "success" of such arrangements by geographical contiguity and in the name of "regionalism". Unfortunately, there seems to be nothing else.