BackgroundSeptember 4th, 2016
FiledSeptember 4th, 2016Almost ten years after the idea was first mooted to form a free trade area, the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) came into operation in July 2006, renewing hopes of greater economic cooperation within the region in an increasingly globalizing world. Under the Agreement, the South Asian region will move to a free trade area by 2016 with the implementation of the tariff liberalization programme, bringing 1.4 billion people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka closer together (Afghanistan will come on board once it formally embraces SAFTA) in the web of economic cooperation.