AMENDMENT TO THE FIRST AGREEMENT ON TRADE NEGOTIATIONS AMONG DEVELOPING MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (BANGKOK AGREEMENT) ASIA-PACIFIC TRADE AGREEMENT PREAMBLE RECOGNIZING the urgent need to take action to implement a trade expansion programme among the developing member countries of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) pursuant to the decisions contained in the Kabul Declaration of the Council of Ministers on Asian Economic Co-operation and within the framework of the Asian Trade Expansion Programme which was adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee on a Trade Expansion Programme created under the Kabul Declaration; GUIDED by the principles contained in the New Delhi Declaration adopted at the thirty-first session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; REALIZING that the expansion of trade could act as a powerful stimulus to the development of their national economies, by expanding investment and production opportunities through benefits to be gained from specialization and economies of scale, thus providing greater opportunities of employment and securing higher living standards for their populations; MINDFUL of the importance of expanding access on favourable terms for their goods to each other’s markets and of developing trade arrangements which promote the rational and outward-oriented expansion of production and trade; NOTING that the international community has fully recognized the importance of encouraging the establishment of preferences among developing countries at the international, regional and subregional levels, particularly through the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations e...
