South Asia is one of the least integrated regions in the world with limited ongoing economic cooperation amongst the eight countries. The level of intra-regional trade within South Asia remains low as 7.5 percent when compared
with other trading blocks such as East Asia (25 percent), North America (54 percent) or Europe (67 percent). While there are a number of rea-sons contributing to the low levels of intra -regional trade, distortions in the form of non-tariff measures (NTMs) such as import licensing systems and sanitary regulations are an im-portant factor, which have stymied the high trading potential of the region.