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Safta to feature high at 12th Saarc summit

Rafiq Hasan
The initiative to turn the South Asian Preferential Trade Arrangement (Sapta) into the South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) will dominate discussion at the 12th Saarc summit level conference to be held in Islamabad January 4-6 next year.
According to sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the other topics that will predominate are an agreement on the Saarc social charter and adoption of an Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation (ISACPA).
The seven member states of Saarc are now negotiating among themselves to reach a consensus on the issues.
All heads of government from the seven member countries are expected to participate in the conference.
Three high-level pre-summit meetings will also be held in Islamabad to settle the agenda for the summit.
The Saarc programme committee meeting will be held on December 29-30, the Saarc standing committee meeting on December 31-January 1 and the council of Saarc foreign ministers' meeting on January 2-3.
The decision to turn Sapta into Safta was taken at the 10th Saarc summit in Colombo in 1998 where a committee of experts was set up to draft a comprehensive treaty framework for the initiative.
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Sri Lanka was appointed a consultant to conduct a study on the implications for the member states of progression from Sapta to Safta.
The IPS has already submitted its report and the member states are working on it.
Sapta was signed in 1993 and made effective in 1995. So far four rounds of negotiations have been held, covering over 5,500 commodities.
The decision to develop a social charter was also taken at the 10th summit. The summit felt the necessity to develop a regional dimension beyond national plans of action to enhance social development in South Asia.
The member states are now working on a draft of the Saarc social charter prepared by the Saarc secretariat following the decision of the 22nd session of the council of ministers, held in Kathmandu in January 2002.
The 11th summit in Kathmandu decided to reconstitute the ISACPA to review the progress made in poverty alleviation in the region. The first decision to establish such a commission was taken at the sixth summit held in Colombo in 1991.
Five meetings were held on the reconstituted ISACPA in Kathmandu, Dhaka, New Delhi and Islamabad. The commission is now ready with its report and recommendations to be placed before the 12th Saarc summit.