The ASEAN-India trade agreement came into force on 1 January 2010. The signing of the agreement paved the way for the creation of one of the world`s largest free trade area markets and created opportunities for more than 1.9 billion people in ASEAN and India, with a total GDP of $4.8 trillion. AIFTA is setting up a more liberal and easier market access and investment system between Member States. The agreement provides for tariff liberalization of more than 90% of the products traded between the two dynamic regions. As a result, tariffs for more than 4,000 product lines were agreed to be abolished by 2016 at the earliest. After eight years of negotiations, economic ministers from 15 Asia-Pacific countries signed the Regional Economic Partnership (RCEP) on November 15, 2020, at a virtual signing ceremony on the sidelines of Vietnam`s 37th ASEAN Summit. RCEP consolidates and builds on existing ASEAN-1 Free Trade Agreements (FEAS)1 with five regional trading partners (« dialogue partners ») and aims to establish a single, harmonized and predictable set of regional trade rules that encourage companies to establish their supply chains in the covered Asia-Pacific region. The next steps will be launched by all parties to the RCEP in their respective national procedures necessary for their implementation. The agreement will enter into force sixty days after six ASEAN member states and three ASEAN-FTA interlocutors submitted their ratification instruments to the ASEAN Secretary General, who acts as the custodian of the agreement. For ASEAN countries, a source within the Thai Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said that it usually takes up to 6 to 12 months for six member states to complete their procedures for ratifying any ASEAN free trade agreement.
For ASEAN`s dialogue partners, it will probably take at least six months before three interlocutors have completed their ratification procedures. In this context, the RCEP is likely to come into force in late 2021 or early 2022, although it may take more time for businesses to understand how to use the agreement and exploit its benefits. SAARC was recognized in Dhaka on 7 and 8 December 1985 with the aim of promoting the interests of the people of South Asia; Improving economic and social progress; Support an active partnership in economic development and social progress; Support an active partnership in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields; intensification and cooperation in international for a on issues of similar interest; and cooperates with international and regional organizations with similar objectives and objectives. Its members include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Cooperation between ASEAN and China (ACFTA Agreement) was signed in November 2002. The ACFTA agreement contained provisions on economic cooperation and areas of cooperation.