The stand of bangladesh for signing bilateral free trade area agreements with india

The current wave of regionalism concentrates more on bilateral rather than regional Free Trade Areas (FTAs). A number of regional and bilateral FTAs such as SAFTA, AFTA, BIMSTEC FTA; India-Nepal FTA, India-Bhutan FTA, Indo-Lanka FTA, India-Thailand FTA; Pakistan-Sri Lanka FTA etc. are in operation in South Asia. Bangladesh is lagging behind in negotiating bilateral and regional FTAs in comparison with others. So far Bangladesh has entered into regional FTA within the South Asia. BIMSTEC FTA is in the process of negotiations, although a framework agreement has already been signed. Before finalising BIMSTEC FTA, Bangladesh has initiated bilateral discussions with India on the possibilities of entering into a bilateral FTA arrangement with these countries. In this backdrop, this paper focuses on the possibilities of signing bilateral FTA with India with whom Bangladesh currently has Regional Trade Areas (RTAs) under various agreements.