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Negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) among BIMSTEC countries, including Nepal and Bhutan, should be restarted quickly, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said
Consider realistic options such as preferential trade agreements if an FTA is not immediately feasible
Statement was made during the BIMSTEC Business Summit in New Delhi.
Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)
It is a regional multilateral organisation
Its members lie in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.
It came into being in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
Initially, it was formed with four Member States with the acronym ‘BIST-EC’ (Bangladesh, India, Sri-Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
It became renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ in 1997, following the inclusion of Myanmar.
With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan in 2004, the name of the grouping was changed to ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation’ (BIMSTEC)
At present 7 members :
Five are from South Asia - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka
Two are from Southeast Asia – Myanmar, Thailand
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