When goods don\'t cross borders, soldiers do!

In the ongoing escalated environment between India and Pakistan, the talk of free trade across borders can be termed unrealistic, anti-nationalist or even unpatriotic. In this article, I will argue that trade openness, trade connectivity and trade facilitation can serve as a deterrence against war, conflict and violence. Openness comes with no or low tariffs; connectivity requires reliable physical infrastructure and facilitation demands simplification and efficiency of transactions. India and Pakistan are part of a region, which is the least connected in the world. Before Trump's tariffs, Nafta intra-trade was 55% of their total trade. Asean member countries' intra-trade was 27% of their total trade. In comparison, intra-Saarc trade is 5% and intra-ECO trade is less than 1%.