"This region still remains one of the world's least integrated in the world. Intra-regional trade has been stagnating around 4-5 percent in the past decade.
"Studies have revealed that that the South Asian region’s expansion of trade can be substantially advanced with programmes of concrete action in order to address barriers to trade facilitation and thereby advance regional goals."
Critics have noted that Sri Lanka has failed to make much headway in trade liberalization particularly with India in recent years with big business production interests blocking trade liberties of the people by directing the coercive power of the state against them.
Critics say South Asia was kept in poverty by states that stole the trade freedoms of the people with protectionism, import licensing, violated their property rights through nationalization and currency depreciation