The commerce ministry has stated that India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 3,142 products to the six member nations of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) effective from July 01, 2018. However, these duty concessions will be more for least developed countries (LDCs) and less for developing nations. The six member countries are Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Korea and Sri Lanka.
The fourth round of trade negotiations were formally concluded and signed by the ministers of the member countries during their meeting on January 13 last year. With the implementation of this decision, the coverage of preferences of total tariff lines for each member would come of 10,677 products, up from 4,270 items at the conclusion of the third round and deepen the average margin of preference (MoP) being provided under the agreement to 31.52%. But, LDC members are entitled to greater concessions on 1,249 items with an average MoP of 81%.
APTA is an initiative under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) for trade expansion through exchange of tariff concessions among developing country members of the Asia Pacific Region and it is in place since 1975. Under a free trade agreement, countries cut or eliminate duties on most number of goods traded between them besides liberalising norms to promote services trade and investments. But, under a PTA, duties are eliminated on a certain number of identified items.
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