Sarath Chandran | Goa University, India (original) (raw)
Associate Professor of Economics
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Papers by Sarath Chandran
World trading system is experiencing emergence of large number of Regional Trade Agreements in th... more World trading system is experiencing emergence of large number of Regional Trade Agreements in the recent past particularly after the establishment of WTO. As the centre of world economic activity slowly shifts to Asian continent, ASEAN is becoming an important RTA in Asia influencing world trade. Realising the importance of ASEAN in the region, India signed an RTA with ASEAN which came to existence from January 1, 2010. It is generally understood that complementarity in the trade structure of the members of RTA facilitates more export and import between them and there is scope for mutual benefit from this increased trade. Hence identifying and measuring trade complementarity is an important task in realizing trade potential and enhanced trade cooperation between RTA partners. Manufacturing sector is very important for the country engaged in FTA as it provides high value added products and generates employment to the local economy. Regional Trade Agreements are effective and successful only if they are carefully designed by identifying and collating complementary products and sectors. In this paper an attempt is made to construct the Revealed Symmetric Advantage Index (RSA) for India and ASEAN countries and to see whether there is increased trade cooperation between these two trading partners. Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Index Revealed Comparative Advantage Index is a simple tool which can be used to understand in which product group a country got comparative advantage against the average trade of the world. A product with high RCA is competitive and can be exported to countries with low RCA. Measures of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) have been used to help assess a country's export potential. The RCA indicates whether a country is in the process of extending the products in which it has a trade potential, as opposed to situations in which the number of products that can be competitively exported is static. It can also provide useful information about potential trade prospects with new partners. Countries with similar RCA profiles are unlikely to have high bilateral trade intensities unless intra-industry trade is involved. RCA measures, if estimated at high levels of product disaggregation, can focus attention on other nontraditional products that might be successfully exported. The RCA index of country 'i' for product j is often measured by the product's share in the country's exports in relation to its share in world trade: í µí±¹í µí±ªí µí±¨í µí²í µí² = (í µí² í µí²í µí² í µí±¿ í µí²í µí² ⁄) (í µí² í µí²í µí² í µí±¿ í µí²í µí²) ⁄
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Abstract: The post WTO world trading system is witnessing proliferation of large number of Region... more Abstract: The post WTO world trading system is witnessing proliferation of large number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). The slow pace of multilateral negotiations and lack of consensus among members on major trade issues is undermining the role of WTO and ...
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a large trade negotiation among 16 countrie... more Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a large trade negotiation among 16 countries of Asia Pacific which aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights among these nations. The 16 RCEP countries include China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the 10-member ASEAN which represent more than 3.5 billion people and about 40 percent of global GDP. India already implemented a free trade agreement with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea and negotiating similar pacts with Australia and New Zealand. There are apprehensions that RCEP agreement will lead to large-scale import of manufactured goods from developed members of RCEP particularly China which enjoys a trade surplus of more than 50 billion US$ with India. Also, large coverage of items in the tariff reduction programme will lead to an influx of cheaper commodities into India affecting the manufacturing sector. Easy access to burgeoning Indian consumer market may affect a large number of informal players affecting their livelihoods. India's gain primarily comes from the services sector which needs greater access to the members' markets. Also, the previous experiences of India's RTAs did not yield desirable results as India's import increased rapidly compared to exports. In this context, the paper argues for India's caution and push for a comprehensive agreement by including services sector where India's advantage lies.
World trading system is experiencing emergence of large number of Regional Trade Agreements in th... more World trading system is experiencing emergence of large number of Regional Trade Agreements in the recent past particularly after the establishment of WTO. As the centre of world economic activity slowly shifts to Asian continent, ASEAN is becoming an important RTA in Asia influencing world trade. Realising the importance of ASEAN in the region, India signed an RTA with ASEAN which came to existence from January 1, 2010. It is generally understood that complementarity in the trade structure of the members of RTA facilitates more export and import between them and there is scope for mutual benefit from this increased trade. Hence identifying and measuring trade complementarity is an important task in realizing trade potential and enhanced trade cooperation between RTA partners. Manufacturing sector is very important for the country engaged in FTA as it provides high value added products and generates employment to the local economy. Regional Trade Agreements are effective and successful only if they are carefully designed by identifying and collating complementary products and sectors. In this paper an attempt is made to construct the Revealed Symmetric Advantage Index (RSA) for India and ASEAN countries and to see whether there is increased trade cooperation between these two trading partners. Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Index Revealed Comparative Advantage Index is a simple tool which can be used to understand in which product group a country got comparative advantage against the average trade of the world. A product with high RCA is competitive and can be exported to countries with low RCA. Measures of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) have been used to help assess a country's export potential. The RCA indicates whether a country is in the process of extending the products in which it has a trade potential, as opposed to situations in which the number of products that can be competitively exported is static. It can also provide useful information about potential trade prospects with new partners. Countries with similar RCA profiles are unlikely to have high bilateral trade intensities unless intra-industry trade is involved. RCA measures, if estimated at high levels of product disaggregation, can focus attention on other nontraditional products that might be successfully exported. The RCA index of country 'i' for product j is often measured by the product's share in the country's exports in relation to its share in world trade: í µí±¹í µí±ªí µí±¨í µí²í µí² = (í µí² í µí²í µí² í µí±¿ í µí²í µí² ⁄) (í µí² í µí²í µí² í µí±¿ í µí²í µí²) ⁄
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Abstract: The post WTO world trading system is witnessing proliferation of large number of Region... more Abstract: The post WTO world trading system is witnessing proliferation of large number of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). The slow pace of multilateral negotiations and lack of consensus among members on major trade issues is undermining the role of WTO and ...
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a large trade negotiation among 16 countrie... more Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a large trade negotiation among 16 countries of Asia Pacific which aims to cover goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, competition and intellectual property rights among these nations. The 16 RCEP countries include China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the 10-member ASEAN which represent more than 3.5 billion people and about 40 percent of global GDP. India already implemented a free trade agreement with ASEAN, Japan and South Korea and negotiating similar pacts with Australia and New Zealand. There are apprehensions that RCEP agreement will lead to large-scale import of manufactured goods from developed members of RCEP particularly China which enjoys a trade surplus of more than 50 billion US$ with India. Also, large coverage of items in the tariff reduction programme will lead to an influx of cheaper commodities into India affecting the manufacturing sector. Easy access to burgeoning Indian consumer market may affect a large number of informal players affecting their livelihoods. India's gain primarily comes from the services sector which needs greater access to the members' markets. Also, the previous experiences of India's RTAs did not yield desirable results as India's import increased rapidly compared to exports. In this context, the paper argues for India's caution and push for a comprehensive agreement by including services sector where India's advantage lies.