India to provide tariff concessions to APTA members

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New Delhi: India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 3,142 products to Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) members, including Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, from July 1, the commerce ministry said Monday.
However, these duty concessions will be more for least developed countries (LDCs) and less for developing nations.
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. It is in place since 1975.
It is a preferential trade agreement (PTA), under which 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.
The six member countries are Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Korea and Sri Lanka.
The results of fourth round of negotiations under the APTA have been implemented with effect from July 1, the ministry said in a statement.
“India has, on its part, exchanged tariff concessions on 3,142 tariff lines (or goods) with all member countries and special concessions on 48 tariff lines for LDCs, with Bangladesh and Laos,” it said.
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.
The decision of this meet has now been implemented by all members with effect from July 1, it added. 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.