Distributors use SAFTA to divert palm oil through Bangladesh, Nepal to India. The Solvent Extractors` Association of India (SEA), a leading vegetable oil trade organization, has called on the government to look for ways to stop the indirect purchase of palm oil and soybean oil from Nepal and Bangladesh under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). Figure 5: Comparative trade share of South Asian countries with India and China from world trade A sensitive list is a list of each country that does not contain tariff concessions. Bangladesh has 1,233 products on the sensitive list for least developed countries and 1,241 for non-developing countries under SAFTA. Bangladesh will reduce the sensitive list of least developed countries (LDCs) by 246 points and non-LDCs by 248 points. [5] India has 25 points on the sensitive list for LDCs and 695 for non-LDCs. Manmohan Singh, then India`s prime minister, announced in September in Dhaka that he would reduce the sensory cunning by 46. Bhutan has 150 items for both LDCs and non-LDCs and has no plans to narrow down its list. Nepal has 1,257 for LDCs and 1295 for non-LDCs. Nepal has reduced its list of 259 from its previous list of 1295. Now it`s 1036, the joint secretary at the Ministry of Trade and Supply said. [6] The Maldives has 681 for the seven SAFTA nations. Pakistan had 1,169 in its sensitive list, but reduced its sensitive list by 20% to 936.
[7] Sri Lanka has 1,042 and Afghanistan has 1,072 points on the negative list. The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is an agreement reached on 6 January 2004 at the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. It created a free trade area of 1.6 billion people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to reduce tariffs on all traded goods to zero by 2016. The SAFTA agreement entered into force on 1 January 2006[1] and is operational after the ratification of the agreement by the seven governments. SAFTA requested developing countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) to reduce their tariffs to 20 per cent in the first phase of the biennium ended 2007. In the last five-year phase, which ended in 2012, tariffs were reduced from 20% to zero in a series of annual reductions. The least developed countries in South Asia (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Maldives) had three additional years to reduce tariffs to zero. India and Pakistan ratified the treaty in 2009, while Afghanistan is the 8th SAARC member state to ratify the SAFTA protocol on 4 May 2011. [2] Despite geographical proximity and the existence of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), South Asia is one of the least economically integrated regions in the world. Due to protectionist policies, high logistical costs, a lack of political will and a wider confidence deficit, intra-regional trade in South Asia remains significantly below its potential, accounting for 5% of the region`s global trade. [2] This makes South Asia one of the most separate regions in the world, especially compared to other regions such as East Asia and the Pacific, where intraregional trade accounts for about 50% of total trade, and sub-Saharan Africa, where intraregional trade has improved over the years to 22% due to measures taken by governments to put in place transparent trade facilitation mechanisms. [3] Intra-regional trade in the South Asian region (including Myanmar) is only 5.6% (2017).
[4] Until 2005, India and China were close in their total trade with South Asia. . . .
