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The Committee of Experts (CoE) of SAARC member countries will sit in Nepalese capital of Kathmandu by this month to review the progress on finalisation of the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement reports BDNEWS.
A commerce ministry official told the news agency Tuesday that the CoE meeting was scheduled for April 19 in Kathmandu to discuss the progress so far achieved on the four procedural formalities - formation of sensitive lists; rules of origin, revenue loss compensation mechanism and ratification by the all member states.
However, he said the date of the meeting might be deferred, but would not go beyond April.
The main issues of the CoE meeting will be to discuss rules of origin and review of the progress made on the exchange of negative lists - the items not to be considered for duty reduction under the treaty by the member countries, sources said.
The committee of experts, comprising commerce secretaries of the member countries of the 7-nation forum, had already held at least half a dozen meetings in the capitals of the member countries on reciprocal basis for discussing issues.
"The main focus of the forthcoming meeting will be on the issue of the rules of origin," a commerce ministry official said.
Earlier, the last CoE meeting of SAFTA member countries held in Male of the Maldives on March 22 had discussed a proposal on rules of origin prepared by Bangladesh, a high official of the commerce ministry said. "Bangladesh has proposed exports of 35 per cent value added products there," he added.
"The proposals are being discussed at government level of the respective countries. These are likely to get a final shape at the Kathmandu meet," he said.
"We must put all the pending issues on a fast track and have to convene back-to-back meetings to arrive at a consensus on important issues," Deputy Secretary of the commerce ministry Fazlur Rahman told the news agency Tuesday. "The deliberations of the Committee of Experts are at a crucial stage," he said.
Bangladesh has prepared a list of about 500 exportable items, which can be exported without major barriers, another official said on condition of anonymity.
The CoE would discuss at length the progress made at technical committee level of the SAARC member countries. It would also discuss the anti-dumping duties, countervailing duties and safeguard measures to be dealt with in accordance with the WTO principles, sources said.
European Commission's GSP Scheme and WTO related issues might be discussed during the meeting.
The SAARC-member countries signed SAFTA on January 6, 2003 with a pledge to scale down their tariff in two phases to 0-5 per cent that would come into force on January 1, 2006, and would be fully implemented by December 31, 2015.
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