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South Asian Free Trade Agreement and the Possibility of Regional Integration within the SAARC: A Historical, Legal and Economic Analysis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2015
Abstract
Preferential trading exchanges have been a very common phenomenon in today's world. FTAs and RTAs are growing so fast that many academics are arguing that they are creating obstacles towards WTO's multilateral trade liberalization. Although seven nations in the South Asian region have recently executed an FTA, the progress of regional cooperation in this region is rather dismal. The purpose of this paper is to analyze SAFTA and discuss the prospect of more meaningful cooperation within the SAARC.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore 2007
References
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4 Ibid.
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33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35 All the member states have completed the formalities including depositing of their Instruments of Ratification with the SAARC Secretariat. Accordingly, a notification issued by the SAARC Secretariat on 22 March 2006 formally announced the entry into force of SAFTA Agreement with effect from 1 January 2006. See SAARC, SAFTA Secretariat Press Release: Notification on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), online: SAARC <http://www.saarc-sec.org/main.php?t=5#22032006>.
36 Supra note 31 at 2.
37 Ibid.
38 Robert Blake, Address at the Opening Reception of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement Conference, October 24, 2005 online: <http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/pr102505.html>. Remarks made by Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Blake.
39 Ibid.
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45 Ibid.
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47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Article 3(1) of the SAFTA
51 Ibid. at Article 4.
52 Ibid. at Article 5.
53 Ibid. at Article 7 (1) (a)-(d)
54 Ibid. at Article 7 (6).
55 Ibid. at Article 12.
56 Ibid. at Article 7 (3) (a).
57 Ibid. at Article 7 (3) (b).
58 Ibid. at Article 10 (2)
59 Ibid. at Article 10 (5)
60 Ibid. at Article 10 (6).
61 Ibid. at Article 10 (8).
62 Ibid. at Article 10 (9).
63 Ibid. at Article 10 (10).
64 Ibid. at Article 14.
65 Ibid. at Article 15.
66 Ibid. at Article 16 (1).
67 Ibid. at Article 16 (7).
68 Ibid. at Article 16 (8).
69 Ibid, Rule 8 (a) (ii) of Annex IV to SAFTA.
70 Ibid, Rule 10.
71 See “Chronology: Volcker controversy?” Times of India (3 August 2006), online: Times of India <http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1849684,prtpage-1.cms>. Only recently Indian foreign minister, Natwar Singh, was forced to resign amid allegations that he had illegally benefited from the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq. See also “Bangladesh and Denmark in aid row” BBC News, online: BBC <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1930800.stm>. Also, in 2002, the Danish Government announced that it was withdrawing $45million of aid from the Bangladeshi shipping sector because it said that the then Bangladeshi Shipping Minister, Akbar Hossain, had behaved dishonestly over a tender for the repair of four ferries.
72 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Article 1131(2), online: NAFTA Secretariat: <http://www.nafta-sec-alena.org/english/index.htm> provides that an interpretation of NAFTA by the NAFTA Commission shall be binding on any tribunal established under NAFTA Chapter 11. This has been used the NAFTA Commission following a series of expropriation cases to limit the ambit of certain provisions in NAFTA Chapter 11. See NAFTA Free Trade Commission, Notes of Interpretation of Certain Chapter 11 Provisions (July 31, 2001), online: <http://www.international.gc.ca/tna-nac/NAFTA-Interpr-en.asp>.
73 Khetan, supra note 44.
74 Ibid.
75 GATT, Decision of the Contracting Parties of 28 November 1979, Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocity and Fuller Participation of Developing Countries (“Enabling Clause”), Decision of 28 November 1979 (L/4903), 26th Supplement B.I.S.D. (1971) 203 [Enabling Clause].
76 European Communities - Conditions for the Granting of Tariff Preferences to Developing Countries, (2004), WTO Doc. WT/DS246/AB/R (Appellate Body Report).
77 Ibid. at para 104.
78 Enabling Clause, supra note 75 at para 2(c).
79 Ibid. at para 3.
80 Raj Bhala, “The Forgotten Mercy: GATT Article XXIV: 11 and Trade on the Subcontinent” (2002) N.Z.L. Rev. at 357.
81 Ibid.
82 General Agreement on Trade in Services, Apr. 15 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1B, Legal Instruments – Results of the Uruguay Round, 33 I.L.M 1167 (1994).
83 Though articulated in different contexts because pessimists use it to vindicate the futility of regional integration within the region.
84 See generally, Mandelbaum, David G., Women's Seclusion and Men's Honor: Sex Roles in North India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988)Google Scholar.
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88 Although there is an ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka.
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