This article examines structural adjustment in the world apparel trade following the abolition of Multi‐Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas through a case study of the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. The evidence suggests that, in a quota‐free global market, individual exporting countries have room for carving out a niche in specific products. The Sri Lankan apparel industry has managed to maintain growth dynamism through specialization in intimate apparel and upmarket casualwear. The expansion of the industry and its adjustment to MFA abolition was aided by an easily trainable domestic workforce and collaborative actions of industry associations and the government, with foreign buyers playing a pivotal role in linking the Sri Lankan firms to the global value chain.
Whilst unilateral liberalization of FDI policy regimes in South Asia have made significant headway and contributed to increased FDI inflows, as a region South Asia's success in attracting FDI, compared to other more successful trading blocs remains limited. Notably, intra-regional investment volumes remain minuscule in comparison to the already dismal level of intra-regional trade. Despite a lapse of over a decade after the implementation of SAFTA, the recent past has witnessed renewed interest in a regional investment agreement in SAARC. This article evaluates how useful a regional investment framework would be for the SAARC. The article argues that whilst a regional investment framework is critical in spurring both intra-and extra-regional FDI, it is by no means the only determinant in attracting FDI. As the experience in ASEAN suggests, in addition to a regional framework, at the country level, each SAARC member state must strive to undertake broad-based reforms to improve their individual country investment climate if they aspire to attract greater volumes of both intra-and extra-regional FDI to support its trade expansion. The article also goes on to draw lessons and best practice from the ASEAN Investment Agreement in going about designing and implementing a Regional Investment Agreement in SAARC. F21, F33, F36, F37, F47, G15, G28
JEL:
Book Reviews 319countries. This volume gives an overall picture of their relationship as it provides trade perspective of both the regions. Downside of the volume is that it only considers three areas like connectivity, information technology and biotechnology.Other sectors like tourism, culture, education, health care, food security are not covered in the book. It would have been better if there is a chapter on India-Myanmar cooperation that could complete the book more precisely.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.