UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q57: Which of the following is NOT a member of the South Asian

Q: What is the answer to UKPSC Prelims 2024 Q57?

A. Correct — A, China. SAPTA was signed at the seventh SAARC Summit in Dhaka on 11 April 1993 and came into force on 7 December 1995. It was an arrangement among SAARC's members, and the seven countries that then made up SAARC signed it. **China** is not a member of SAARC and was not a party to SAPTA. It holds observer status at SAARC, which lets it attend the inaugural session of summits but gives it no place in the association's trade agreements. Its trade links with the region run through other instruments, such as the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement. The idea to carry away: **the 'South Asian' in SAPTA is institutional, not geographic**. Membership was tied to SAARC, so a large neighbour that borders several members still sits outside it.

UKPSC Prelims 2024 General Studies Paper-I · Question 57 of 147

Verified against the official question booklet. Answer as per UKPSC's provisional answer key.

Answers from UKPSC's provisional answer key. The Commission publishes a provisional key for UKPSC Prelims 2024 and invites objections before issuing a final key. Every answer shown here is the Commission's own provisional answer (key PDF), not our derivation. If the final key changes an answer, this page is updated to match.

Which of the following is NOT a member of the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA)?

(a)China
(b)Maldives
(c)Bangladesh
(d)Nepal

Answer

Why

Correct — A, China.

SAPTA was signed at the seventh SAARC Summit in Dhaka on 11 April 1993 and came into force on 7 December 1995. It was an arrangement among SAARC's members, and the seven countries that then made up SAARC signed it.

China is not a member of SAARC and was not a party to SAPTA. It holds observer status at SAARC, which lets it attend the inaugural session of summits but gives it no place in the association's trade agreements.

Its trade links with the region run through other instruments, such as the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement.

The idea to carry away: the 'South Asian' in SAPTA is institutional, not geographic. Membership was tied to SAARC, so a large neighbour that borders several members still sits outside it.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Maldives — Maldives is a founding member of SAARC and signed SAPTA with the other six members in 1993, so it cannot be the odd one out.
It is the right answer to a different question: the SAARC member whose first bilateral free trade agreement was with China — signed on 7 December 2017 and in force from 1 January 2025.
Pakistan's FTA with China is older, signed in November 2006 and in force from July 2007.
(c)
Bangladesh — Bangladesh is a founding member of SAARC and a SAPTA signatory; the agreement was in fact signed in its capital.
It is the right answer to a question asking where SAPTA was signed: Dhaka, at the seventh SAARC Summit in April 1993.
Dhaka also hosted the first SAARC Summit in December 1985, and the proposal for SAARC itself came from Bangladesh's President Ziaur Rahman.
(d)
Nepal — Nepal is a founding member of SAARC and a SAPTA signatory. Under the successor agreement, SAFTA, it is one of the least developed contracting states, which gives it a longer tariff-cutting timeline than India, Pakistan or Sri Lanka.
It is the right answer to a question asking where the SAARC Secretariat is: Kathmandu, where it was established on 16 January 1987.

Concept

A preferential trade arrangement (PTA) is the shallowest form of regional economic integration. Members grant each other tariff concessions on an agreed list of products, negotiated round by round, while keeping their own external tariffs.

A free trade area goes further: members phase tariffs on most of their mutual trade down to zero or near zero, with sensitive lists as exceptions. SAPTA was SAARC's PTA; SAFTA, signed in 2004 and in force from 1 January 2006, is its free trade area.

SAPTA was SAARC's first trade agreement, signed eight years after the association was founded in 1985. Its product-by-product concessions were modest, and the members moved on to SAFTA, which replaced it.

Membership of both instruments follows SAARC membership.

That is why China, which observes SAARC and trades heavily with the region, is outside them, while it is inside APTA, which reaches into South Asia through Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and inside RCEP, an East and Southeast Asian–Pacific grouping whose negotiations India left in 2019.

Key facts

SAPTA, the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement, was signed at the seventh SAARC Summit in Dhaka on 11 April 1993.
SAPTA entered into force on 7 December 1995.
Its seven signatories were the SAARC members of the time: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
SAFTA was signed at the twelfth SAARC Summit in Islamabad on 6 January 2004 and came into force on 1 January 2006.
Afghanistan joined SAARC in April 2007 and acceded to SAFTA in 2011, making eight SAFTA members.
China is a SAARC observer, alongside Australia, the European Union, Iran, Japan, Mauritius, Myanmar, the Republic of Korea and the United States.
China is a member of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (formerly the Bangkok Agreement of 1975) along with Bangladesh, India, Lao PDR, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka.
China is a member of RCEP, in force since 1 January 2022; India withdrew from the RCEP negotiations in 2019.
The SAARC Secretariat was established in Kathmandu on 16 January 1987.
SAFTA gives its least developed contracting states, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives and Nepal at signing, a longer tariff-reduction timeline than India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Where China sits among the region's trade groupings

SAPTA (signed 1993, in force 1995)→China: not a party; seven SAARC members signed

SAFTA (in force 2006)→China: not a party; eight SAARC members

SAARC itself→China: observer, not member

APTA (Bangkok Agreement)→China: member, with India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka

RCEP (in force 2022)→China: member; India opted out

SAPTA and SAFTA follow SAARC membership; China observes SAARC and is party to other regional trade pacts, but not to these two.

Study next

SAFTA's Trade Liberalisation Programme: the 0–5 per cent tariff target, the separate timeline for least developed contracting states, and sensitive listsSAARC observers and the difference between observer status and membershipThe Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (Bangkok Agreement): the preferential pact that has both India and China as membersRCEP and India's 2019 decision to stay out of itBIMSTEC membership and how it differs from SAARC's

Common traps

Reading 'South Asian' as a map rather than a membership list: SAPTA was open to SAARC members, so China, which borders several of them, is outside it.
Confusing China's SAARC observer status with membership: observers are invited to the inaugural session of summits but are not parties to SAARC's trade agreements.
Mixing SAPTA with SAFTA: the 1993 and 1995 dates belong to SAPTA, the 2004 and 2006 dates to SAFTA, and Afghanistan is in SAFTA but was not a SAPTA signatory.
Carrying APTA's membership across: India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka sit with China in APTA, which is a separate agreement from SAPTA.

The membership angle appears as an odd-one-out, as here, with a non-SAARC neighbour placed among three founding members.

The same body has also been asked as a year question — in which year SAPTA was constituted — and, in its SAFTA form, as an odd-one-out on membership and as a statements pair on SAFTA's entry-into-force date and tariff timeline.

A wider version lists several groupings and asks which of them India, or China, belongs to; APTA, RCEP, SAFTA and BIMSTEC make a natural set for that.

Related PYQs

UKPSC_2016_PRE_PaperI_Q172016

Same instrument, different attribute: the 2016 paper asked the year SAPTA was constituted (signed 1993 at Dhaka), where this item asks who belongs to it. Knowing SAPTA as a 1993 SAARC agreement answers both, but the 2024 item also needs China's non-member status.

GEO_GS_2021_Q532021

The same odd-one-out device applied to the successor agreement, SAFTA, in the UPSC Combined Geo-Scientist General Studies paper: the outsider there is Myanmar, a SAARC observer like China. It differs in naming SAFTA rather than SAPTA and in placing India and Pakistan among the listed members.

UPSC_2006_GS1_Q462006

Moves from membership to mechanics: it tests SAFTA's entry-into-force date (1 January 2006, so its first statement is wrong) and the tariff-reduction timeline for the non-least-developed members. Same SAARC trade track, but a dates-and-schedule question rather than a who-belongs question.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
In which year did the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) enter into force?
- (a)1985
- (b)1993
- (c)1995
- (d)2006
Answerc — SAPTA came into force on 7 December 1995.
1985 is the year SAARC itself was founded, 1993 is the year SAPTA was signed at Dhaka, and 2006 is the year SAFTA came into force.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which of the following countries is a party to SAFTA but was not a signatory of SAPTA?
- (a)Bhutan
- (b)Afghanistan
- (c)Sri Lanka
- (d)Myanmar
Answerb — Afghanistan joined SAARC in 2007 and acceded to SAFTA in 2011, after SAPTA had been replaced.
Bhutan and Sri Lanka were founding SAARC members and signed SAPTA in 1993. Myanmar is a SAARC observer and is a party to neither agreement.
practice — not a real PYQ
Consider the following statements about SAPTA: 1. It was signed at Dhaka in 1993. 2. It was superseded by SAFTA, which came into force on 1 January 2006. 3. China is one of its signatories. Which of the statements given above are correct?
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Answera — Statements 1 and 2 are correct: SAPTA was signed at the seventh SAARC Summit in Dhaka in April 1993, and SAFTA, in force from 1 January 2006, replaced it.
Statement 3 is wrong because China is not a SAARC member and did not sign SAPTA, which rules out (b), (c) and (d).
practice — not a real PYQ
China is a member of which of the following? 1. Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) 2. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) 3. South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) 4. BIMSTEC Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1, 2 and 4
- (d)1, 2, 3 and 4
Answera — China is a member of APTA (with Bangladesh, India, Lao PDR, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka) and of RCEP.
SAFTA is confined to SAARC members, and BIMSTEC's seven members are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand; China belongs to neither, so (b), (c) and (d) fail.