South Asia’s Agricultural Commodity Exports: What Prospects?

Abstract

The successful conclusion of the GATT Uruguay Round and the subsequent implementation of the agreements under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have opened up access to new markets for agricultural commodities in both more developed and developing countries. South Asia, one of the major growers of agricultural commodity, and a major growth region in the present world, has bright prospects in exporting agricultural products. The trade prospect in South Asia is to be influenced by the region’s attempts in stabilisation, and reforming the economic policies as well as by changes in the external environment and internal policy adjustments to those changes. The principal external factors that need to be watched closely are: economic growth, inflation and interest rates in industrial countries, world commodity prices, international capital flows and world trade.