AFTA Standard Time is the standard time zone observed in the Asian Free Trade Agreement member countries, since its chartering. It is eight hours and thirty minutes ahead of UTC (UTC +8:30). No other official time zone is known to share the +8:30 offset.
History and Use[]
Before the approval of a standardized time zone for AFTA, Yarphei used UTC+8 and the EAF used UTC+8 and UTC+9 for keeping time. In order to facilitate travel and trade between the countries, a compromise was made, putting both countries on a unified time offset, long unused since Changbai time was abolished. The time zone meridian runs through the Korean Peninsula, and the offset areas might experience sunrises from 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock in different parts of AFTA. In Province 41 of Yarphei, which follows the AFTA Standard Time, residents will often observe 12-hour time with p.m. occuring before noon. The Pacific Island Territory does not follow AFTA Standard Time, as an outlying prefecture, but follows established local time zones that existed prior to the creation of AFTA Standard time, ranging from UTC+12 to UTC-11.