After Bangladesh and Pakistan, India will ratify the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) agreement by December 29 before it comes into effect on January 1, 2006.
Pakistan is the first country to ratify the Safta while Bangladesh ratified the modalities to facilitate free trade in the Saarc region on Monday. Other member states of the Saarc will complete rectification of the Safta agreement within the next couple of days, sources said.
Indian PTI news agency quoting Union Commerce Secretary SN Menon reported that the Union cabinet will clear the Safta agreement by December 29.
The idea of the agreement is to bring down tariff level to 5 percent within the next five years. Some 5,500 tariff lines had been included under Safta, which included both industrial and agricultural products.
Once the agreement comes into effect, official sources said Bangladesh will be the top gainer among the least developed countries (LDCs) in the region as it has the ability to offer more products for trading regionally than countries such as Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives.
