Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) is a 2004 agreement that created a free-trade area of 1.6 billion people in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the vision of increasing economic cooperation and integration. [1]
A bilateral free trade agreement is between two sides, where each side could be a country (or other customs territory), a trade bloc or an informal group of countries, and creates a free trade area.
A free trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers, import quotas and tariffs, and to increase trade of goods and services with each other.
The OED records the use of the phrase "free trade agreement" with reference to the Australian colonies as early as 1877. [9] After the WTO's World Trade Organization - which has been considered by some as a failure for not promoting trade talks, but a success by others for preventing trade wars - states increasingly started exploring options to conclude FTAs.
The Agreement entered into force on 19 April 1989 and was notified to the then General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), predecessor of the World Trade Organization (WTO), on 25 September 1989. The 42 members of GSTP include 7 LDCs as well (Bangladesh, Benin, Guinea, Mozambique, Myanmar, Sudan, and Tanzania).
A free trade area is basically a preferential trade area with increased depth and scope of tariffs reduction. All free trade areas, customs unions, common markets, economic unions, customs and monetary unions and economic and monetary unions are considered advanced forms of a PTA, but these are not listed below.
A Free trade agreement (FTA) is an international deal between cooperating states to form a free-trade area. There are two types: bilateral agreements involve two countries easing trade restrictions for business expansion, while multilateral agreements involve three or more countries, and are more challenging to negotiate. [16]
The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), previously known as the Bangkok Agreement [1] and renamed 2 November 2005, [2] was signed in 1975. It is the oldest preferential trade agreement between countries in the Asia-Pacific region.