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SAARC TRADE TALKS BEGIN

Experts debate on negative lists

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries began crucial trade talks in Dhaka yesterday on a free trade deal in the region with negative list of products and rules of origin (ROO) issues dominating the discussions.
A negative list mentions the products that do not enjoy zero tariff facility under a free trade agreement (FTA) while under the ROO, two countries decide the local value addition of a product to be eligible for free trade.
The fifth expert committee meeting of South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) agreed that the negative lists should be made smaller as almost all
countries presented big negative lists to keep their major revenue earning items out of the FTA.
According to earlier consensus, three developing countries -- India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- will have smaller negative lists but four least developed countries (LDCs) -Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives -- can have bigger lists.
"We had several bilateral meetings to make further progress on our negative list," said an official of Bangladesh delegation in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the four LDCs sat in a separate meeting on the sidelines of the talks to discuss the revenue compensation mechanism.
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On the other hand, Bangladesh had a crucial negotiation on ROO with India as both the countries had major differences on this issue in earlier meetings.
Bangladesh sought a maximum of 30 percent local value addition but India was rigid to make it a minimum of 40 percent.
Later, India agreed to lower the local value addition ceiling for Bangladesh. The ROO is still being discussed and a separate committee is working to make further progress.
"In our talks today, all the countries raised their concerns and expectations. We hope we would be able to reach a meaningful conclusion in the three-day negoti-ation,"AKM Fazlur Rahman, who is leading the nine-member Bangladesh delegation at the talks, told reporters after the first day meeting.
He said Bangladesh is trying to make the ROO as simple as possible.
"The negotiation should be concluded by June next year so that we get at least six months to do other works at home. For that we have to make substantial progress in this meeting," he added.
A total of 38 government officials are participating in the three-day trade talks. The next expert committee meeting will be held in New Delhi in December.
Saarc foreign ministers at the 12th summit of the regional forum in Islamabad early this year signed a landmark agreement to establish Safta for better economic cooperation among the South Asian nations. The Safta will be effective from January 1, 2006.