Cabinet approves inclusion of Mongolia as new member

The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of the second amendment to the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) incorporating Mongolia as the new member, raising the total number of its member countries to seven.

The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said the amendment to the oldest preferential trade agreement of the Asia pacific region is made to include Mongolia and rearrangement of the tariff regime under the agreement.

The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), previously known as the Bangkok Agreement was signed in 1975 and later renamed as APTA in 2005.

Now, Bangladesh, India, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Laos are the members of the agreement.  The membership of Mongolia is likely to be finalised at the next ministerial meeting of the APTA billed for January 13, 2017 in Bangkok.

The draft also finalised a new list of tariff regime under the agreement.

Under the agreement, Bangladesh generally gives 10-70 percent duty free access to 598 items from APTA countries in addition 20-50 percent concession to four more items from LDCs.

As per the agreement, China gives 5 percent to 100 percent duty-free access to 2,191 items of APTA countries while India gives 5 percent to 100 percent duty free access to 3,334 items.