SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement

The Agreement on SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement(SAPTA) was signed on 11 April 1993 and entered into force on 7 December 1995, with the desire of the Member States of SAARC(India, Pakistan,Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives) to promote and sustain mutual trade and economic cooperation within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region through the exchange of concessions.

The establishment of an Inter-Governmental Group (IGG) to formulate an agreement to establish a SAPTA by 1997 was approved in the "Sixth Summit of SAARC" held in Colombo in December 1991.

The basic principles underlying SAPTA are:

# "overall reciprocity" and "mutuality of advantages" so as to benefit equitably all Contracting States, taking into account their respective level of economic and industrial development, the pattern of their external trade, and trade and tariff policies and systems;
# negotiation of "tariff reform" step by step, improved and extended in successive stages through periodic reviews;
# recognition of the special needs of the Least Developed Contracting States and agreement on "concrete preferential measures" in their favour;
# inclusion of all products, manufactures and commodities in their raw, semi-processed and processed forms.

So far, four rounds of trade negotiations have been concluded under SAPTA covering over 5000 commodities.

Participant countries

*People's Republic of Bangladesh
*Kingdom of Nepal
*Kingdom of Bhutan
*Islamic Republic of Pakistan
*Republic of India
*Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
*Republic of Maldives

See also

*South Asia Free Trade Agreement
*List of international trade topics

External links

* [http://www.saarc-sec.org/main.php?t=2.1.5 SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement]