A Tale of Too Little: Anti-dumping Tariff Between SAFTA Contracting Parties

Abstract

Despite eight neighbouring Member States of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) signing the intra-regional preferential trade agreement (PTA), trade between South Asian countries is among the lowest in the world. This article analyses one aspect of the trade under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) – anti-dumping duties in the internal trade between the SAFTA contracting parties. It demonstrates that SAFTA has a very sketchy rule on anti-dumping, and even that has hardly made any impact on the intra-SAARC trade. The article argues that the SAFTA as a PTA within the broader framework of a regional institutional mechanism needs to be more ambitious in scope and should dismantle the antidumping duties in intra-SAARC trade. Anti-dumping, SAARC, SAFTA, South Asia, free trade agreements