{"id":30054,"date":"2026-08-17T12:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T06:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=30054"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:11:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:41:39","slug":"safta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/safta\/","title":{"rendered":"SAFTA"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>SAFTA Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has dismantled a major network involved in importing South-East Asian areca nuts into India by falsely declaring them as Bangladeshi origin and availing concessional duty benefits under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About SAFTA<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>free trade arrangement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/south-asian-association-for-regional-cooperation-saarc\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SAARC).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>agreement came into force in 2006,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> succeeding the 1993 SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>SAFTA signatory countries:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SAFTA recognizes the need for special and differential treatment for <\/span><b>LDCs in its preamble<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This has been translated in the following measures:<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Objective:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Objectives of this Agreement are to <\/span><b>promote and enhance mutual trade and economic cooperation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among Contracting States by, inter-alia:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Eliminating barriers to trade<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in, and facilitating the cross-border movement of goods between the territories of the Contracting States;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Promoting conditions of fair competition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the free trade area, and ensuring equitable benefits to all Contracting States, taking into account their respective levels and pattern of economic development;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Creating effective mechanism<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for the implementation and application of this Agreement, for its joint administration and for the resolution of disputes; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><b>Establishing a framework for further regional cooperation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to expand and enhance the mutual benefits of this Agreement.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?PRID=2300102&amp;reg=48&amp;lang=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAFTA is the free trade arrangement of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Read more about SAFTA, Members, Objectives, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9584],"class_list":["post-30054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-safta","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119574,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054\/revisions\/119574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}