The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) was signed in 1975 as an initiative of UN- Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). It is previously named the Bangkok Agreement. There are 6-member states to APTA – Bangladesh, China, India, South Korea, Laos and Sri Lanka. Mongolia is soon to become the 7th member of APTA. It has concluded bilateral negotiation on tariff concessions with members of APTA. It is a preferential trade agreement (PTA), under which the basket of items as well as extent of tariff concessions are enlarged during the trade negotiating rounds. It is a truly region-wide trade agreement spanning East and South Asia, with potential to expand to other subregions, including Central Asia and the Pacific. APTA is the only operational trade agreement linking China and India. It is open to all developing member countries. It is the first plurilateral agreement among the developing countries in the region and has the longest effective implementation period amongst the trade agreements in the entire Asia-Pacific. Recently, India has agreed to provide tariff concessions on 3,142 products to APTA members from July 1.
