Regional Economic Cooperation between India and ASEAN: A Study on India’s Trade Patterns with ASEAN Countries
Keywords:
Look East Policy, Act East Policy, Trade Intensity, Export DiversificationAbstract
India initiates its “Look East Policy” in the year 1991 for the purpose to enlarge economic and trade relationship with East Asian countries including the ASEAN. However, their relationship gained impetus when “Look East Policy” was modify to “Act East Policy” at 12th ASEAN-India Summit, 2014 to stimulate economic integration, cultural ties and expand tactical relationships with ASEAN. India and ASEAN also signed a Free Trade Agreement on 13 August, 2009 namely ASEAN-India FTA. The signing of this agreement leads to creation of one of the biggest FTA in the world with a combined population of approx 1.85 billion people and combined GDP of US$ 5.1 trillion. ASEAN is the 5th largest export partner of India in the year 2017-18 with an 11.27 % share in total export. The present study made an attempt to analyse the India’s trade patterns with ASEAN countries for the period 2010-17. For this purpose, Trade Intensity Index and Hirschman-Herfindahl Index have been applied in the study. The secondary data has been used in the study. It is found from the study that Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam are the only member countries of ASEAN where India’s export is more than its import from these countries. Therefore, India’s balance of trade is positive only with these countries. Trade intensity of India is very much high with Myanmar and the giant member countries of ASEAN namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand which show that India has an enormous trade with these countries. Further, India’s export profile is very well diversified with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia and it is very less diversified with small countries of ASEAN namely Brunei, Cambodia and Laos.
This research paper is part of my PhD research work on “A Study on Indo-ASEAN Trade Relationship”.
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