Foreign trade of India and China with Asean: A comparative study

East Asia is one of the most dynamic and fast growing regions of the world. The wave of regionalism in southeast Asia came into existence in the year 1990. In the late 1990s, the economic crisis affected most of the Asian countries. Therefore, more emphasis has been given to regional economic integration with consequent proliferation of various FTA involving ASEAN and other countries in the region. In this scenario, India and China, two emerging superpowers in global economy, has also adopted similar policy of establishing closer economic and strategic engagements with ASEAN, the most successful regional bloc. ASEAN also realized that these economic powerhouses of Asia will give a new shape to the 21^st century. So, China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and India-ASEAN FTA in goods (FIG) has come into force on 1^st January, 2010. Now both countries are keen to conclude early FTA in services and investment also. Keeping all these views in mind, the present paper is trying to examine that to what extent China and India are gaining an importance in global economy relative to ASEAN. It is also analyzed that China-ASEAN trade occupies much place in the world or India- ASEAN trade. The objective of this paper therefore, is to compare the trends and composition of foreign trade of ASEAN, China and India. It is an attempt to investigate whether ASEAN-China trade and ASEAN-India trade is complementary or competitive to each other.