South Asia is shooting itself in the foot on trade

SOUTH Asian countries need to do more to facilitate the movement of goods and services with each other and other regions. Regulatory and legal schemes make it the least economically integrated region in the world, despite the technological feasibility of infrastructure and cultural connections between the region’s states. There is thus a danger that the region’s countries will individually become integrated into the greater Asian economy through a third country, namely China, a trend that is underscored by Xi Jinping’s recent trip to Pakistan. While this is not bad for individual countries, it will hurt the region as a whole.

One way that South Asian countries thwart each other is by using their geography to make land trade for other states all the more convoluted, driving up costs and generally making trade needlessly more difficult for their neighbors.