APTA meet begins in Colombo today
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
M Azizur Rahman
Bangladesh will pursue the issue of special and differential treatment of its products at the two-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) countries starting today (Wednesday) in Colombo.
"We, as member of the least developed country (LDC), will look for special and differential treatment like duty-free access of our local products in increased number in the APTA states," one Bangladeshi representative told the FE before leaving Dhaka for the APTA standing committee meeting.
He said Bangladesh along with another LDC member, Lao People's Democratic Republic, will also seek commitment from other APTA participating countries to ensure concessionary treatment of products to help grow their economies now lagging behind others.
Three Bangladeshi representatives will be taking part in the APTA standing committee meeting in Sri Lankan capital.
The participating countries of the APTA - Bangladesh, China, India, Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Sri Lanka - are to set modalities for preparing product lists of the respective countries for concessionary trading.
They will also discuss the non-tariff measures, trade facilitation, services, and investments among the APTA member states, commerce ministry sources said.
The meeting will also consider entry of new members, which are members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and whose economies are in transition.
The APTA, previously known as the Bangkok Agreement, was signed in 1975 as an initiative of the UN-ESCAP. The agreement was renamed as APTA in 2005.
It is a preferential tariff arrangement and aims at promoting intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually agreed concessions by member countries.
Under the APTA arrangement a number of Bangladeshi products like knitwear garments, jamdani saree and leather got duty-free access to China, India and South Korea.
China also provided duty-free access of Bangladeshi electrical goods, frozen fish, soap, plastic tableware and kitchenware, raw or retted jute and jute sacks and bags.
Bangladesh will pursue the issue of special and differential treatment of its products at the two-day meeting of the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) countries starting today (Wednesday) in Colombo.
"We, as member of the least developed country (LDC), will look for special and differential treatment like duty-free access of our local products in increased number in the APTA states," one Bangladeshi representative told the FE before leaving Dhaka for the APTA standing committee meeting.
He said Bangladesh along with another LDC member, Lao People's Democratic Republic, will also seek commitment from other APTA participating countries to ensure concessionary treatment of products to help grow their economies now lagging behind others.
Three Bangladeshi representatives will be taking part in the APTA standing committee meeting in Sri Lankan capital.
The participating countries of the APTA - Bangladesh, China, India, Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Sri Lanka - are to set modalities for preparing product lists of the respective countries for concessionary trading.
They will also discuss the non-tariff measures, trade facilitation, services, and investments among the APTA member states, commerce ministry sources said.
The meeting will also consider entry of new members, which are members of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and whose economies are in transition.
The APTA, previously known as the Bangkok Agreement, was signed in 1975 as an initiative of the UN-ESCAP. The agreement was renamed as APTA in 2005.
It is a preferential tariff arrangement and aims at promoting intra-regional trade through exchange of mutually agreed concessions by member countries.
Under the APTA arrangement a number of Bangladeshi products like knitwear garments, jamdani saree and leather got duty-free access to China, India and South Korea.
China also provided duty-free access of Bangladeshi electrical goods, frozen fish, soap, plastic tableware and kitchenware, raw or retted jute and jute sacks and bags.