India gives tariff concessions to APTA members

India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 3,142 products to Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) member-countries, including Bangladesh, coming into effect from July 1 this year.

The Indian commerce ministry in a statement on Monday said these duty concessions would be more for least developed countries (LDCs) and less for developing nations.

The 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 member countries of the Asia Pacific Region. It has been in place since 1975.

Under the preferential trade agreement, the basket of items as well as extent of tariff concessions are expanded during trade negotiating rounds which are launched from time to time.

The six member countries are Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, India, Laos and South Korea.

The results of the fourth round of negotiations under the APTA have been implemented with effect from July 1, the statement said.

“India has 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 wrapped up and signed by the ministers of the member-countries during their meeting on January 13 last year.

The decision of that meeting has now been implemented by all member-countries with effect from July 1, the statement added.

With the implementation of this decision, the coverage of preferences of total tariff lines for each member-country would come on 10,677 products, up from 4,270 items at the conclusion of the third round of negotiations.

The average Margin of Preference (MoP) being provided under the agreement is 31.52 percent. But the LDC members are entitled to greater concessions on 1,249 items with an average MoP of 81 percent.

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. Under a PTA, duties are eliminated on a certain number of identified items.