TRINITY OF THE SOUTH

Potential of India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Partnership

Tinity of the South:
Potential of India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Partnership

The coming together of India, Brazil and South Africa to strengthen the economic partnership is a major development in the area of South-south Cooperation. The three partners represent leading economies in their respective continents and bring together an array of complementary strengths and capabilities that could be exploited for mutual benefit. They have shared political and economic history and development experiences. There are significant synergies between these countries as they have developed substantial capabilities in different sectors over the years. But these synergies are yet to be fully utilized for their collective benefit and development of the South in general. IBSA countries can reinforce the economic strength of each other by synergizing their complementarities in areas of industry, services, trade and technology which in turn could create a market of 1.3 billion people, US$2 trillion of GDP and foreign trade of nearly US$ 540 billion in 2005. IBSA partnership is also of immense strategic value for multilateral negotiations and shaping their respective roles in the global governance.

The cooperation between India, Brazil and South Africa has potential of having important spillovers for the partners of each of these countries in their respective sub-regional groupings, namely, SAARC in the case of India, MERCOSUR in the case of Brazil, SACU in the case of South Africa. Therefore, IBSA partnership could make a major contribution to the economic development of three sub-regions across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

RIS, in this study, makes an exploratory attempt to examine the potential of IBSA economic partnership in the areas of trade in goods, services, investments, technology cooperation and other areas of economic cooperation between the three countries given the extensive complementarities and synergies capabilities that can make cooperation in a number of sectors highly fruitful. It makes a number of recommendations for exploiting this potential of the IBSA economic partnership.

Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) is an autonomous policy think-tank, established in 1984 in New Delhi, and specialized in trade and development issues. Its work programme focuses on multilateral trade negotiations, regional economic integration in Asia, new technologies and development issues. Its work programme focuses on multilateral trade negotiations, regional economic integration in Asia, new technologies and development, South-South Cooperation and Strategic responses to globalization.

The work of RIS is published in the corm of research reports, books, discussion papers and journals. More information about RIS and its work programmed is available at www.ris.org.in.

Contents

Preface
Executive Summary
1.

IBSA in the Context of Re-emergence of South-South Cooperation

1.1 Introduction
1.2 IBSA: The Trinity of the South
1.3 Context of the Study
1.4 Organisation of the Report
2.

Growing Regionalism an Era of Multilateralism: The Response of IBSA

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Reforms, Recent Performance and Challenges of IBSA
2.3 The Response of IBSA to Regionalism and Bilateralism
3.

Merchandise Trade between India, Brazil and South Africa: Policies, Performance and Potential of Cooperation

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Trade Policy Reforms in IBSA
3.3 Overall Trade Performance
3.4 Analysis of Tariff Structure in IBSA
3.5 Export Competitiveness
3.6 Export Potential
3.7 Trade Targets
3.8 Non-Tariff Barriers
3.9 Steps Towards Achieving Trade Targets
4.

Trade in Services: Potential and Prospects

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Service Sector Reforms in IBSA
4.3 WTO Commitments by IBSA
4.4 Growth of Service Sector in Domestic Economy
4.5 Trade in Services: A Comparative Analysis
4.6 Select Areas for Trilateral Cooperation
4.7 Concluding Observations
5.

Trade in Services: Potential and Prospects

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Investment Policies in India
5.3 Policies Governing Investment in Brazil
5.4 Policies Governing Investment in South Africa
5.5 Investment Cooperation in IBSA
5.6 Sectors of Investment and Technology Cooperation
5.7 Promoting Investment: Role of Investment Treaties
5.8 Concluding Observations
6.

Firming up the Connectivity: Civil Aviation and Maritime links

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Transport Linkages
6.3 Concluding Observations and Recommendations
7.

Strategic Cooperation in Shaping the International Trade and financial Architecture

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Relevance of IBSA Cooperation in Multilateral Forums
7.3 Reform of International Financial Architecture and the United Nations
7.4 Cooperation in Multilateral Trade Negotiations
7.5 Promotion of South-South Cooperation
References