Bangladesh’s textile industry may be favored by the SAFTA deal, largely for its low-cost manufacturing advantage, helping to get preferential access to the huge India market. “The tariff concession would work to the advantage of finished product manufacturers from Bangladesh,” said a Confederation of Indian Textile Industry official. He explained that the phased tariff liberalisation programme during the first two years since the deal comes into force would benefit countries such as Bangladesh. In the first phase, non-LDCs will have to bring down tariffs to 20 per cent while LDCs will bring them down to 30 per cent
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| only. Bangladesh would benefit from the ‘limited market access’ that India has accorded through a tariff rate quota of 6 million pieces of fabrics, with the condition that the sourcing of fabrics should be either from India or of Bangladesh origin. It said the ushering in of SAFTA from Sunday is not expected to lead to any immediate quantum jump in imports into India since as many as 884 specific product groups have been kept on the Sensitive List where the trade liberalisation programme would not be applicable, industry and trade experts said. There is, however, an acknowledgement that SAFTA has more chances of success than South Asia Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA). 
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