India`s Approach to Asian Economic Integration

Abstract

Despite being a founder member of GATT, India never actively participated at the multilateral negotiations before the Uruguay Round, but depended mostly on multilateral liberalizations for increased market access. It also did not opt for regional economic integrations as a trade-promoting strategy or for fulfilling any other objective in a major way, barring exceptions like SAARC. Although this reluctance to enter into FTAs \\ RTAs continued throughout the nineties, the attitude changed since Doha Ministerial (2001), and a further distinct shift has been noticed since Cancun Ministerial (2003) onwards. The country is now part of a number of preferential trade arrangements, and a significant proportion of these blocs involve Asian countries as partners, which presently are at various stages of negotiations. The current paper attempts to focus on India’s Asian economic integration approach and identify the major determinants behind the shift in the attitude of the country over the last decade. Based on the analysis, at the end the future concerns are discussed.