The September 2020 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on “COVID-19 Crisis: Trade-Related Challenges in South Asia”. The first-page article titled “COVID-19 and challenges of trade: The Bangladesh perspective” emphasizes that while being a small developing country Bangladesh has little to influence the recovery of the global trade, Bangladesh needs to get its domestic business fronts right to cope up during the crisis time and to register a substantial recovery in the post-crisis period. In this context, there is a need for developments in five major areas: (i) quick and effective measures to ensure equal access and fair distribution of benefits of stimulus packages to all export sectors, (ii) diversification of export basket, (iii) addressing the challenges to attract FDI, (iv) start FTA negotiations with major trading partners; and (v) reconsider pushing back the transition from the LDC status by three more years. The second and third pages of this issue present three more articles. The article titled “COVID-19 and challenges of trade for India” discusses http://premier-pharmacy.com India’s management of trade-related challenges emerged from the COVID-19-led global crisis through various trade facilitation and stimulation measures. The article concludes that along with the preparation to deal with new challenges, countries have to protect global trade to move towards a resilient recovery. The article on “COVID-19 and challenges of export trade for Sri Lanka” discusses the challenges experienced by the export firms drawing the findings from a survey on trade and labour market impacts of COVID-19 by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). The article underscores the need for a conducive environment to attract trade opportunities and boost exports. The article titled “COVID-19 and Pakistan’s Trade” inspects Pakistan’s response to adverse effects of the pandemic on trade. The article points out the necessity of continuous fiscal and financial supports to exporters and importers to re-establish trade and developing regional integration with untapped markets. The fourth page writes about the upcoming SANEM International Conference and the SANEM events occurred in August 2020.
