The union cabinet in India has approved the exchange of duty concessions under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) towards increasing trade among the six member nations including Sri Lanka of the regional trade pact.
“The union cabinet has approved the exchange of tariff concessions on margin of preference (MoP) basis under the fourth round of negotiations of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement and related amendments,” an official statement here said.
Current members of APTA are Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, South Korea and Sri Lanka.
The Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), formerly called the Bangkok Agreement, is an initiative under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) for trade expansion through exchange of tariff concessions among developing country members of the Asia-Pacific region.
“Since this is a preferential trade agreement, the basket of items as well as extent of tariff concessions are enlarged during the trade negotiating rounds which are launched from time to time. Till date, three rounds of trade negotiations have taken place,” a Commerce Ministry statement here said.
-NIE
-Agencies
