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‘Trade’ has been the buzzword in the policy paradigm of the global economy for some time now. With no progress in the WTO talks and free trade agreements emerging as focal points, the significance of the impact of trade on economic growth and even on domestic policy space is now a matter beyond debate. But what lies wide open is the development question. Considering that freeing international trade was supposed to foster economic growth and broad based development, the time is ripe for asking whether and how trade has contributed to domestic development and whether the current initiatives in the region are sufficient to sustain the development process. This becomes even more critical since the trade situation has become increasingly volatile and multilayered with the current commodity and financial crisis. In addition, the development agenda under the multilateral negotiations is being continuously undermined and there is a possibility that it will be even more so under some of the bilateral trade regimes. Simultaneously, with the global financial crisis and the impending recession in the US, the development agenda is likely to get further eroded in the coming years as there will be an intense pressure on international and domestic spending on providing job security, food and emergency aids and building social security networks in developing economies.
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