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APPENDIX-2A

List of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) / Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) signed by India


(i) FTAs already signed and operational
 

S. No. Name of the Agreement and the participating countries Date of Signing Date of Implementation Details
1. India - Bhutan Agreement on Trade, Commerce and Transit 17.01.1972
(revised on 28.07.2006)
29.07.2006 Under this Agreement, India also provides transit facilities to landlocked Bhutan to facilitate its trade with third countries. It is valid for a period of 10 years.
2. Revised Indo-Nepal Treaty of Trade 06.12.1991
(Revised on 27.10.2009)
(The present Treaty is valid till 26.10.2016)
27.10.2009 The Treaty aims at improving bilateral trade between the two countries by increasing the mutually agreed points of trade, expansion in the list of items included for preferential trade, simplification of trade procedures, improving Nepalese supply capacities, provision of two level institutional mechanisms for problem resolution etc.
3. India- Sri Lanka FTA (ISLFTA) 28.12.1998 01.03.2000 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka was signed on 20.12.1998 and was operationalised in March, 2000 following notification of required Customs tariff concessions by Government of Sri Lanka and India.

Procedure for import of certain listed items under ISLFTA is at Annexure-I
4. Agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan Maldives and Afghanistan) 04.01. 2004 01.01.2006 Afghanistan became Eighth Member of SAARC from April, 2007 and the provisions of Trade Liberalization Programme (TLP) are applicable to Afghanistan w.e.f. 07.08.2011).
5. India - Thailand FTA - Early Harvest Scheme (EHS) 9.10.2003 01.09.2004 India and Thailand have signed protocol to implement Early Harvest Scheme under India- Thailand Free Trade Agreement on 01.09.2004.Tariff preferences for imports on items of Early Harvest Scheme would be available only to those products, which satisfy Rules of Origin Criteria, notified by Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, vide notification No.101/2004-Customs dated 31.08.2004.
6. India - Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) 29.06.2005 01.08.2005 India-Singapore CECA was the first comprehensive FTA India signed with any country.
7. India - South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) 07.08.2009 01.01.2010  
8. India – ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) 13.08.2009 1st January 2010 in respect of India and Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand.
1st June 2010 in respect of India and Vietnam.
1st September 2010 in respect of India and Myanmar.
1st October 2010 in respect of India and Indonesia.
1st November in respect of India and Brunei.
24 January 2011 in respect of India and Laos.
1st June 2011 in respect of India and the Philippines.
1st August, 2011 in respect of India and Cambodia.
 
9. India - Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement 16.02.2011 01.08.2011  
10. India - Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement 18.02.2011 01.07.2011 Under the CECA, India and Malaysia have offered commitments over and above the commitments offered by them under ASEAN -India Trade in Goods Agreement. Key items on which Malaysia has offered market access to India are basmati rice, mangoes, eggs, trucks, motorcycles and cotton garments which are all items of considerable export interest to India.


(ii) Preferential Trade Agreements(PTAs) already signed and operational

S. No. Name of the Agreement and the participating countries Date of Signing Date of Implementation Details
1 Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) (Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka) July, 1975 (revised Agreement signed on 02.11.2005) 01.11.1976 APTA is a preferential trading arrangement designed to liberalise and expand trade in goods progressively in Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) region through liberalization of tariff and nontariff barriers. At present, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Korea, India and China are exchanging tariff concessions under APTA. The 43rd Standing Session in May, 2014 saw the accession of Mongolia into APTA.
2 Global System of Trade Preferences (G S T P)
(Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Tanzania, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe)
April, 1988 April,1989 Under agreement establishing GSTP, tariff concessions are exchanged among developing countries, who have signed agreement. Presently, 46 countries are members of GSTP and India has exchanged tariff concessions with 12 countries on a limited number of products. EIC is sole agency authorised to issue CoO under GSTP. The Sao Paulo Round of the GSTP was concluded among 8 countries but only Cuba, India and Malaysia have ratified the Protocol as of October, 2014.
3 India - Afghanistan 06.03.2003 May, 2003 A Preferential Trade Agreement between Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan and Republic of India was signed on 6.3.2003 and was operationalised with issuance of Customs Notification No 76/2003 dated 13.5.2003. EIC is sole agency to issue CoO under India Afghanistan Preferential Trade Agreement.
4 India - MERCOSUR 25.01.2004 01.06.2009 Through this PTA, India and MERCOSUR have agreed to give tariff concessions, ranging from 10% to 100% to each other on 450 and 452 tariff lines respectively.
5 India - Chile 08.03. 2006 August, 2007 Under this PTA , India has offered tariff preferences on 202 tariff lines (as per 2007 HS ) at the 8 digit level to Chile with the margin of preference (MoP) ranging from 10%- 50% and Chile has offered tariff preferences on 296 tariff lines to India at the 8 digit level with MoP ranging from 10%- 100%.
6 SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement or SAPTA (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives) 1993 1995 SAPTA was signed by seven SAARC members namely India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives in 1993 and came into operation in 1995. Four rounds of trade negotiations have been completed and more than 3000 tariff lines are under tariff concessions among SAARC countries.


Annexure –I

Procedure for import of Vanaspati, Bakery shortening and margarine, [ITC(HS) Code 1516, 1517, 1518], Peper [ITC (HS) Code 0941] and Desiccated Coconut [ITC (HS) Code 08011100] under Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

i) The total quantum of import of Vanaspati, bakery shortening and margarine, Pepper and Desiccated Coconut that can be imported under Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement shall be as follows-
 

Sl. No. ITC (HS) Code Description of goods

Total aggregate quantity that is available for import during each financial year

[OLD- Total aggregate quantity that is available for import during 2015-16 ]

1. 1516, 1517 or 1518 (other than 15161000, 15171010, 15179030 & 15180040 which are prohibited for import) Vanaspati, bakery shortening and margarine 2,50,000 MT
2. 0904 Pepper 2500 MT
3. 08011100 Desiccated Coconut 500 MT


(Column 4 of the table in Annexure-1 of Appendix 2A indicates the aggregate quantity available during each financial year Revised vide PUBLIC NOTICE NO.62/2015, DT. 25/02/2016)

ii) These imports will be permitted subject to the following arrangements/procedure:-

(a) The import would be subject to Government of India, Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) Notification No.2/2007-Customs dated 5th January 2007 (as amended from time to time) relating to Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

(b) All applications must accompany a pre-purchase agreement from one of the eligible exporter of Vanaspati in Sri Lanka. The pre-purchase agreement must indicate the quantity and the duration of fulfillment of the contract. The list of eligible exporting entities of the item from Sri Lanka shall be decided by the Govt. of Sri Lanka.

(c) At the time of clearance of the import consignment, the importer in India must produce a Certificate of Origin issued by concerned authorities in Sri Lanka.

(d) The year in respect of these imports will be the period from 1st April to 31st March, i.e. financial year of India.

(e) All applications for grant of import authorisation shall be sent only through E-mail at import-dgft@nic.in in the prescribed format as given below:
 

Sl.No Name and Registered office address of the applicant IEC No. Item sought to be imported ITC(HS) Code Qty. applied for (MTs) CIF value (Rs.) & Fee Date of submission of the application in ANF2B along with Fee deposited in RA Name of Regional Authority


(f) Allocation will be made equally among the eligible applicant subject to quantity applied. The application in ANF2M and ANF1 along with the requisite fee is required to be filed in the concerned RA as per the normal procedure. The application should be sent by 28th February of the financial year, for allocation in the next financial year (For allocation during 2015-16 the application may be filed upto 30.04.2015.)
 

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