SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 12 of 95

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

When was the Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) Scheme for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) announced by India?

(a)2006
(b)2009
(c)2010
(d)2008

Answer

Why

Correct — D. India announced the Duty-Free Tariff Preference scheme for Least Developed Countries in 2008, at the first India-Africa Forum Summit held in New Delhi that April, and notified it later the same year.

That made India the first developing country to offer duty-free preferential access to LDC exports, taking up the duty-free quota-free goal set at the WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial of 2005 → option (d).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
2006 — 2006 falls between the WTO's Hong Kong Ministerial of December 2005 and India's own announcement. The goal existed by then, but India's scheme did not.
(b)
2009 — 2009 is a year late. The scheme was already in force by then, with LDCs joining the beneficiary list rather than the scheme being announced.
(c)
2010 — 2010 is chosen because the scheme kept widening after it began — India broadened its coverage in 2014 — but the stem asks for the announcement, which is fixed at 2008.

Concept

Least Developed Country is a United Nations category, and duty-free quota-free access for LDC exports was agreed as a goal at the WTO Ministerial Conference at Hong Kong in 2005. Developed members were asked to provide it, and developing members were invited to do the same if they were in a position to.

India's DFTP is that offer. It is unilateral and non-reciprocal: India lowers duties on LDC goods and asks nothing back, which is why it sits under trade diplomacy rather than under a trade agreement.

Eligibility tracks the UN list, so a country that graduates out of LDC status stops being a beneficiary. That is what makes not-a-beneficiary questions answerable without memorising the whole list.

Key facts

India announced the DFTP scheme for LDCs in 2008 and was the first developing country to offer such access.
The announcement came at the first India-Africa Forum Summit, held in New Delhi in April 2008.
The scheme's coverage was widened in 2014.
Beneficiary status follows the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries.

Study next

Duty-free quota-free market access and the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial of 2005The United Nations Least Developed Country category and graduation out of itIndia-Africa Forum Summits and India's non-reciprocal trade concessions

Common traps

Dating the scheme to the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial, which set the goal but is not India's announcement.
Treating DFTP as a trade agreement, when it is a unilateral concession with no reciprocal obligation.

SSC also asks which country is not a DFTP beneficiary, on 13 Sep 2024, 12:30, General Awareness Q.1, so learn the scheme with its eligibility rule and not only with its year.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.