India's trade with neighbours only 31% of total potential: World Bank

India's current trade in goods with its neighbouring countries in the South Asian region is a mere 30.65 per cent of the potential trade of $ 62 billion, which can be boosted if certain restrictions on the current trade, like tariffs, port restrictions and other non-tariff barriers can be eased, a report from the World Bank said.

Currently, India's actual trade in South Asia accounts for $19.1 billion which is just three per cent of its total global trade at $637.4 billion and around $43 billion below the potential.

According to Sanjay Kathuria, lead economist at the World Bank, owing to economic and non-economic barriers, it is cheaper for India to import the same set of goods from Brazil as compared to its neighbour Pakistan, while for Sri Lanka or Bangladesh, imports from Nepal are more costly as compared to Brazil.

The report indicates that while the trade between India and Pakistan presently stands at $2 billion, without any trade barriers, this alone could go up to $37 billion which will far exceed India's current total trade with south Asian countries. Average tariffs in south Asia during 2016 stood at 13.6 per cent as against the global average tariff of 6.3 per cent.