Book Review: Indra Nath Mukherji and Kavita Iyengar (Eds), Deepening Economic Cooperation between India and Sri Lanka
| DOI | 10.1177/0015732514558158 |
| Author | Debashis Chakraborty |
| Date | 01 February 2015 |
| Published date | 01 February 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Indra Nath Mukherji and Kavita Iyengar (Eds), Deepening Economic
Cooperation between India and Sri Lanka. Mandaluyong City, Philippines:
Asian Development Bank, 2013, $41.75 (hardbound), 250 pp., ISBN
978-92-9254-169-9 (Print), 978-92-9254-170-5 (PDF).
Separated only by Palk straits, India and Sri Lanka have often engaged in com-
mercial and cultural exchanges over centuries, owing to their geographic proxim-
ity. In the post-colonial era, it was therefore only natural that Sri Lanka emerged
as one of the close cooperation partner of India. Since 1970s the two countries have
come together to regionally cooperate through several arrangements, namely,
Bangkok Agreement, later renamed as Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) since
1975, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) since 1985,
South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) since 1995, Indo-Sri Lanka
Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) since 2000 and South Asian Free Trade Area
(SAFTA) since 2006. It also joined the negotiations for Bay of Bengal Initiative
for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) along with
India and other countries.
The ongoing stalemate in WTO Doha Round negotiations and the consequent
delay in multilateral trade policy reforms are increasingly making membership in
regional trade agreements (RTAs) lucrative. According to World Bank (2000),
both economic (e.g., trade creation, scale efficiency, foreign direct investment
(FDI) flows, regional energy cooperation) and political factors (intra-regional and
extra-regional security) can be important drivers of regionalism policies. As far as
India and Sri Lanka are concerned, indeed a number of motivations spanning over
economic and political factors bring both of them closer. While consolidating its
regional advantage in Sri Lankan market has been a prudent option for India on
one hand, the huge Indian market offered Sri Lanka an opportunity to diversify its
industrial base and exploit the scale advantages on the other.
Nevertheless, given the similarity in economic structures of the two countries,
short-term conflict of interests have surfaced at times, which are expected to be
taken care of in the long run. In particular speedy resolution of concern areas will
contribute significantly in paving the way for the next level of cooperation through
the much sought after Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)
Foreign Trade Review
50(1) 69–72
©2015 Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0015732514558158
http://ftr.sagepub.com
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