It is now official- all the formalities regarding South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) have been completed by the member countries. When I was reading this news in a Nepalese website, the first thought that came to my mind was that how free SAFTA will be. In case you didnot know, SAFTA is perhaps the biggest free trade zone in the world with a combined population of nearly 1400 million.
The member countries of SAFTA are same as SAARC. Of the 7 member countries India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are considered to have stronger economy. They are supposed to lower their tax (0%-5%) by January 01, 2009 for products of less developed member countries- Bangladesh, Bhutan Maldives and Nepal. These 4 less developed countries will do the same thing by January 01, 2016.
So, the reality is that SAFTA is not free trade area for the time being. However, for the people of
How do you feel about SAFTA? Do you think that it will boost trade in
South Asia contains more than half of the world population. So this is a big market and SAFTA is a big leap for these countries toward free trading. As a Bangladeshi I think Bangladesh can gain a lot from SAFTA but our country needs very clear and well planned policies regarding SAFTA or this could be disastrous for the business sectors.
Posted by: mehdi hassan | March 24, 2006 9:28 AM | Permalink to Comment