APTA invites Nepal to join trading bloc

The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), a bloc of seven Asian countries, have invited Nepal to join the bloc, granting it an observer status during its third ministerial council meeting that concluded in Seoul last week.

The bloc is a preferential tariff agreement formed in 1975 and has South Korea, India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos and Mongolia as members. It aims at promoting intra-regional trade and to attain this goal, its members have been providing tariff concessions to each other on the basis of consensus.

"The bloc offers a huge market potential for Nepali traders to tap. But we are yet to conduct a detail homework on joining it," said Ganesh Dhakal, joint secretary at Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), who attended the ministerial meet of the bloc. He told myrepublica.com that although the block, previously known as Bangkok Agreement, has history of over three decades, it has focused on extending the membership only recently. Even Mongolia was inducted as the new member only during the Seoul meeting.

MoCS officials stated that the block has enforced rounds of tariff liberalization for each others, a move which has greatly contributed them to expand the intra-regional trade.

For instance, statistics of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) shows that Korea´s trade in the region has expanded to 34 percent from 20 percent since the bloc enforced fresh round of tariff liberalization in 2006. Intra-regional trade of China too has soared to 37 percent from 25 percent.

If Nepal joined, officials are optimistic Nepal could also enjoy similar trade benefits. Dhakal said the ministerial meeting has further agreed to complete new round of tariff concession negotiations in two years, expand trade facilitation and scope of cooperation in a bid to further integrate regional economies. The ministers also signed the trade facilitation and investment framework agreement and issued a ministerial declaration at the end of the meeting.
Source:Republica