BIMSTEC Roundtable on Trade and Infrastructure Connectivity 2022 | United Nations ESCAP | 7 December 2022 | Bangkok, Thailand

This event members has been growing, with India leading the way in establishing bilateral trade agreements and trade-enhancing measures. The bay area’s geography is a key factor, including the Bangladesh-India 4,096-km border and efforts the two countries have made to introduce various trade-enhancing measures that have increased trade volume. India and Sri Lanka, for their part, signed a Free Trade Agreement in 1998. India and Thailand implemented the Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) of an FTA. India and Nepal share an open border. There are no visa requirements between Bhutan and India, and India’s northeastern states have an unfenced border with Myanmar. For India, BIMSTEC is already a subregion with few trade or investment barriers. However, trade in the region has not reached its optimum level. A regional FTA may be the next key step in enhancing overall economic performance in South Asia