In Defense of Regionalism: The Developing Countries' Perspective.

The mushrooming growth in regional trading arrangements from 50 in the 1990s to 585 till June 15, 2014, with 379 in force, constituting nearly 60% of the world trade in the era of multilateralism, has triggered interest in the rationale behind these arrangements. This paper makes an attempt to critically judge the multilateral trading system as well as regional trading arrangements from the developing countries' perspective. The paper further explores India CEPA with Japan and South Korea to highlight the issue as to how the design of the agreement impacts the gains from trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]