ISDS Case Map
BIMSTEC
Bangladesh-India-Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand (plus Bhutan and Nepal) Economic Cooperation
The Bay of Bengal for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), a regional trading bloc of seven South and Southeast Asian countries, is giving final shape to its free trade agreement in Colombo this week.
BIMSTEC, an economic bloc consisting seven South and Southeast Asian countries, is resuming trade negotiations next week in order to finalize the bloc's free trade agreement (FTA) and propose a new date for its enforcement.
BIMSTEC, a bloc of seven countries from South and Southeast Asia, is all set to miss the date of implementing free trade accord, as differences on terms of trade is still wide and members have been failing to convene to discuss those.
The member countries of the BIMSTEC and South Asian Free Trade Area may not be able to meet the July 1 deadline for implementation of the pact mainly due to different degrees of opposition from Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
Dhaka is likely to provide 522 products of three least developed countries (LDCs) of Bimstec with duty-free access between June 2006 and June 2009. The country may also provide the same products of three other developing countries of the seven-nation bloc with duty-free access from June 2011.
The seven BIMSTEC member countries failed to agree on rules of origin criteria and other outstanding issues, which left text of FTA accord on trade in goods undecided in Bangkok this week.
The BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) free trade agreement is expected to come into force from July 1 this year, the Bangladesh Parliament was told Sunday.
The proposed India-Bimstec (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan) free trade agreement to be implemented from July 1 2006 has to cross one last hurdle.
Trade Negotiation Committee has finalized rules for settling disputes in BIMSTEC free trade agreement. It has, however, failed to converge on the percentage of value addition for rules of origin.
Apart from a few issues that remain to be ironed out the seven-nation Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) regional grouping is all set to implement the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) among the member countries by July 2006 as scheduled.
