The impending graduation from Least Developed Country (LDC) status represents a critical structural milestone for emerging South Asian economies. While graduation unlocks higher sovereign credibility and access to global capital markets, it simultaneously phases out preferential market access, Duty-Free Quota-Free (DFQF) schemes, and flexibilities under the WTO TRIPS agreement. CPRI is convening this high-level policy dialogue to evaluate the structural reforms required to maintain industrial export momentum.
Over-reliance on a single export category creates severe vulnerability to external terms-of-trade shocks and global demand downturns. This forum brings together senior trade policy officials, industrial chamber leaders, tariff commission analysts, and private equity directors to establish actionable strategies for broadening the national export basket into active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), light engineering, high-value leather goods, and agro-processing.
Core Agenda & Focus Pillars:
- Tariff Rationalization & Paratariff Dismantling: Formulating a predictable multi-year roadmap to reduce anti-export bias inherent in domestic protective tariffs.
- Standards Compliance & Certification Corridors: Building accredited testing laboratory infrastructure to meet stringent European and North American sanitary, phytosanitary, and ESG standards.
- Trade Logistics & Modern Free Trade Agreements: Preparing technical negotiating frameworks for comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CEPAs) with key regional trade partners.
The session will open with an empirical presentation on real effective exchange rate (REER) dynamics and export competitiveness elasticities. Working groups will produce an actionable policy advisory memo to guide national negotiating teams ahead of bilateral trade talks.