Kathmandu, April 21:

Commerce ministers of the SAFTA member countries agreed to phase out tariff barriers within a time frame and non-tariff and para-tariff barriers following the reports of expert committees, to make the agreement effective.

Ministers from SAARC countries were meeting in Dhaka in a bid to chalk out strategies for effective implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA). The treaty has come into force from January 2006. This is the first time that a ministerial meet is being held in Dhaka since the implementation of SAFTA agreement, according to a top official at the ministry of industry, commerce and supplies.

“Developing countries will phase out tariff barriers by the next three years while the least developed countries (LDCs) will get 10 years to remove the impediments,” Bangladesh’s commerce minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury said at a press briefing after a day long first meeting of the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC).

He said that the ministers have also agreed to include the ‘service sector’ in SAFTA. “From now on, problems on service sector among SAARC countries will also be resolved according to the SAFTA accord,” he added. According to the New Nation, he said negative lists of goods will be reviewed by the next four years but any country which needs to review the list earlier, will be able to do that with the consent of other countries.

“Expert groups will sit once after every six months while the ministers will sit once a year,” he said adding that they can sit at any time if it becomes necessary.

The meeting of the SAFTA ministerial council (SMC) was held at a city hotel to sort out the details of implementation of the regional free trade accord, scheduled to be effective from July 1, 2006. Chowdhury inaugurated the meeting where Chenky Dorji secretary general of SAARC was also present.

Experts believe that the view that SAFTA could emerge as an effective tool for the whole region to expedite economic development through the enhancement of trade. Nepal has a total of about 1,300 products in the sensitive list, which needs to be reduced to about 1,000.

As per the provisions of SAFTA, agreed by seven member countries of SAARC, LDCs are supposed to get revenue compensation for the first four years beginning January 1, 2006.