South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE)

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Readers' Forum

I enjoyed reading the article by Hannah Irfan and Shandana Gulzar Khan on anti-dumping in the second issue. There is an important anti-developmental aspect to anti-dumping. As developing countries move away from traditional exports, their new, non-traditional exports face anti-dumping cases. For small economies, these cases present a mortal threat. For instance, copper used to account for 85 percent of Chile’s exports but they account for just 40 percent now. One of Chile’s major non-traditional exports was fresh salmon with an annual value of over US$1 billion. While the domestic market for salmon in Chile is economically insignificant, high anti-dumping duties could destroy the industry. What is interesting is the relative absence of developing countries seeking significant reforms in anti-dumping. Most of the major developing countries seeking negotiations, such as Brazil, India, South Africa and others, perceive the need to balance the vulnerability of their exporters to the costs and risks of antidumping cases abroad against the desire of their internal antidumping administrators to maintain their existing practices.

Gary N. Horlick, Senior Partner, International Trade Group of Wilmer Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, Washington DC

Congratulations for bringing out a very informative and instructive publication providing useful tips to the business community in South Asia on how to optimise trade potentials under the World Trade Organisation regime and globalisation. It compares very well with the publications of international trade-related institutions.

B.Raj Bhandari, Chief Consultant to Global Traders Conference, Geneva

I had an opportunity to go through the first two issues of Trade Insight. Despite a long-standing government level regional cooperation among South Asian nations, it still remains to be one of the least integrated regions economically. I believe Trade Insight can contribute towards a deeper and broader economic cooperation among South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation nations by bringing complex regional trade and economic issues for discussion. I look forward to seeing more articles on issues such as quality, productivity and competitiveness along with regional trade. Please do not hesitate to make Trade Insight reader-friendly by using more data, tables, graphs and charts.

GB Banjara, GTZ/Private Sector Promotion Project, Kathmandu

Trade Insight is a great initiative for South Asia and I applaud you on the quality and timeliness of the publication.

Adil Najam, Associate Professor of International Negotiation & Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts

Congratulations for bringing out Trade Insight. The issues are topical, insightful and quite comprehensive. I wish this publication every success.

Ram Ghimire, Under Secretary, Ministry of General Administration, HMG Nepal

Trade Insight is relevant according to today’s need. My compliments on publishing such a good magazine.

Vimal Jain, Rajasthan Patrika, Jaipur

I read the first two issues of Trade Insight with great interest and would like to congratulate SAWTEE for this useful and unique publication. The need to have a South Asia specific trade magazine was felt for quite some time and I think Trade Insight is a valuable step in filling this gap. I found the style simple and lucid. The articles were crisp and concise. The magazine also reflects the scale of work that needs to be done in the South Asian region. If trade has to play an important role in fostering development and in alleviating poverty, then South Asia has to be the focal point, as it is home to millions of the world’s poor.

Samar Verma, Regional Policy Advisor, Oxfam GB, New Delhi

Congratulations on bringing out such an excellent magazine, which provides an insight into trade-related issues. Please pay greater attention to the layout, headlines and break the introductary texts of books given in the last page into smaller paragraphs that would make the magazine more elegant and ready-friendly.

Ram Sharan Sedhai, Senior Communications Officer, ActionAid International Nepal

Thanks for sending us your valuable publication Trade Insight. We are very impressed by the quality of your publication and we wish you a good continuation!

Ricardo Melendez-Oritz, Executive Director, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva

I would like to thank you for sending us Trade Insight. We found it to be a very valuable publication.

Mariano Iossa, Food and Trade Policy Advisor, ActionAid Internatinal, Brussels

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