| Summary/Abstract |
The South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) commenced in 2006, envisaging a duty free area by 2016 for all Member Countries. However, the success achieved under the treaty has been quite limited; intra-SAARC trade has continued to be around 4 percent of the total trade of the region. It has been argued that one of the reasons for SAFTA being ineffective is because of the large Sensitive (sometimes called negative) Lists maintained by Member Countries; such items are not offered concessional tariffs.
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