The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is the free trade agreement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The agreement entered into force in 2006 and came into force with the 1993 ASAC preferential trade agreement. SAFTA`s signatory countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The EPA is an advanced form of free trade agreement that will guarantee preferential and even duty-free access to goods, services and investment in both countries. Although India does not have a EPA with Nepal or Bhutan, it offers concessions on goods and services from these countries. The main objective of the agreement is to promote competition in the region and to offer equitable benefits to the countries concerned. It must benefit the citizens of countries by bringing transparency and integrity between nations. SAFTA was also created to strengthen the level of trade and economic cooperation between ASARC states by reducing tariffs and trade barriers and to grant specific preferences to least developed countries (LDCs) within SAARC, nations.to create a framework for further regional cooperation. 2 „ships“ refers to commercial fishing vessels, registered in the country of the State party and operated by a citizen of the State party or by a company, company or company duly registered in that country, of which at least 60% are owned by a citizen or a citizen and/or by the government of that contracting state or by 75% of the citizens and/or governments of the States Parties.
However, products of vessels that engage in commercial fishing under bilateral agreements and provide for the chartering/leasing of these vessels and/or the distribution of catches between contracting states may also benefit from preferential treatment. In accordance with the trade liberalization programme, States Parties must meet the following timetable for tariff reduction. Non-least developing countries should reduce the current tariff to 20% and reduce current tariffs in smaller developing countries by 30%. But the system of trade liberalization is not applicable to the sensitive list, since this list must be negotiated between the contracting countries and then negotiated. A sensitive list will include a common agreement between the States Parties in favour of the least developed States Parties. The SAFTA Council of Ministers (SMC) will participate to review the sensitive list every four years to reduce the list. „The EPA between India and Bangladesh can help promote bilateral trade between the two countries. As Bangladesh will end the status of least developed countries by 2024 in order to maintain duty-free access to India, Bangladesh must sign a free trade agreement with India. As a dysfunctional SAFTA, CEPA will be a success with a bilateral integrated free trade agreement,“ said Selim Raihan, Professor (Economics), Dhaka University and Executive Director, South Asian Network on Economic Modeling. For the purposes of implementing the rules of origin under Rule 14 of the SAFTA rules of origin, the following operational certification procedures are to be followed: AUTHORITY ARTICLE 1 The certificate of origin is issued by the authority designated by the government of the export contracting state (hereafter referred to as the „issuing authority“) and notified to the other contracting states.