The South Asian Economies comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka (SAEs) represent 22 percent of world’s population but they only account for just over 1 percent of world’s trade. In 2003, agricultural trade in the SAEs amounted to US$ 22 billion and it accounted for approximately 4 percent of world’s agricultural trade and 23 percent of the regional trade. During the 1970s, SAEs had highly protected trade regimes supported by high tariffs, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and stringent controls on exchange. The rationale for protective polices was safeguarding domestic industries, improving the terms of trade, raising revenue, altering the income distribution and raising nutritional levels. During 1980s, the hitherto inward looking policies of SAEs took a marked shift towards outward looking policies. Economic policies were aimed at export-led industrialization as a means of achieving rapid economic growth. Moreover, SAEs by then had obtained memberships of various international organizations and various reforms were carried out to meet international obligations. The exchange rate regimes of many SAEs changed from fixed to managed float or free float and the restrictions on current account and capital accounts were substantially reduced. The trade policy changes emphasized on fewer trade restrictions and brought down tariff levels to a large extent especially in the case of Sri Lanka and in others, to some extent. During the late 1970s in Sri Lanka and in the late 1990s in other SAEs, the tariff structures were made simple and the number of tariff bands was reduced. The changes of the SAE’s tariff structures and exchange rate regimes and relaxation of payment restrictions during the 1990s show that SAEs have moved towards greater openness in their trade.