& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

WRITE-UP HASANUZZAMAN

The 15th Saarc Declaration: A political economy perspective
The 15th Saarc Summit concluded on 3rd August, 2008 in Colombo with the adoption of a 41-point Declaration. Inaugurated nearly twenty-five years ago by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and acceded by Afghanistan in 2007, the Saarc should have by now become an irresistible entity among the global trading blocs. With the proliferation of regional free trade agreements (RTAs) worldwide, the Saarc embodies an optimistic prospective for its members in realising their trade-related and other polit-ico-economicpotentials.
The 15th Saarc Summit Declaration incorporated issues that are important from the regional perspective - stepping closer towards a South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) by 2016. At the summit, the leaders had emphasised their commitment to implement Safta and also directed the decision to revise the sensitive lists, where the Declaration recommended that special consideration should be given to the LDCs. Other than Safta- related provisions, the Declaration had touched on other areas such as environment, water resources, povertyalleviation, ICT development, tourism, culture, women and children and last but not the least, combating terrorism through a regional framework. The Colombo Summit had also laid emphasis on the issue of food crisis and subsequently, established a Saarc food bank to address the region s situation.
Of all the issues mentioned in the Declaration, four issues ought to receive priority by members. Starting with the telecommunications sector, the Declaration stressed the need for the members to 'move towards a uniformly applicable low tariff.' The Declaration went on to call for an early ratification of the Saarc Development Fund (SDF), which is to replace the South Asian Development Fund (SADF), inaugurated in 1995, and also welcomed the signing of the text of the agreement on the establishment of the South Asian
Regional Standards Organization (SARSO). Furthermore, the Declaration urged exploration of the regional hydro-potential, grid connectivity and gas pipelines.
With regards to the telecommunications issue, international call rates continue to be high whereby it tends to offset trade-related activities that demand intensive communication. The SDF is a commendable initiative by the Saarc members, where the leaders have reiterated their commitment to 'expedite their financial contributions to the Fund'. However, it appears that a full-fledged Saarc Central Bank (SCB) would be more effective institutional form in servicing projects that are based on cross-country cooperation among Saarc members.
The SARSO is a significant step towards realising Safta. Many of the regional tradebarriers are of non-tariff type, originating in such areas due to lack of compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, technical barriers to trade (TBT), stand-ardisation certification requirements etc. Bangladesh, particularly, has already faced an export ban from one of her major export destination countries the EU (shrifpp case). Establishment of a supranational institute could play an important role in ensuring compatibility of standards among the various countries.
However, based on the early experiences of the EU, this step can be judged to be somewhat irrational at the moment mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, it will be only after the elimination of customs duties, when free trade takes place within the region, that the members will be tested for their standards of products, which in turn would reflect each member's legalistic dimensions with regards to their standards-setting policymaking area. Secondly, the Saarc does not appear to have a strong dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) to assist the SARSO in implementing its decisions in a legal manner.
Indeed, the European Commission sought total standards harmonisation as a means of driving forward the process of integration only after the complete elimination of customs duties between member states in 1968.
Beginning in 1973 with the 'low-voltage directive,' the commission, where possible, incorporated the work of the European Committee for Standards (CEN) and the European Standards Coordinating Committee (CENELEC), both of which coincide with the concept of SARSO, into Community measures by 'reference to standards'. However, it was not until the famous judgement by the European Court of Justice (Cassis de Dijon) in 1979 that gave new impetus to the com-
mission's work on harmonizing standards across the region.
The judgement established the principle of mutual recognition that insisted that under certain specified conditions, member states should accept in their own markets products approved for sale by other member-states.
The Safta can be expected to undergo hardcore legal tests in the near future and a DSM is needed in this context in order to serve two inter-related objectives (a) minimising the frictions that may be generated as a result of the free trade area due to the practice of different standards-setting in member countries; and (b) its decisions may set new standards that members would be mandated to adopt and comply with.
On the issue of the development of a regional hydropower generation, grid connectivity and gas pipelines, Bangladesh needs to actively pursue a regional strategy that would aim at minimising power shortages, which is a major stumbling block for the nation's economic development. Given the spatial features of energy resources, demand pattern and electricity generation in the Saarc region, establishment of a regional grid could prove to be a winwin situation for partner countries.
Although the economic and other social benefits from a Safta are quite large, the primacy of politics over economics in South Asia largely explains the sluggish growth of regional trade.
If the Saarc is to become a vibrant force, it should operate through a amalgam system of inter-governmentalism and supranationalism. Depending on the intensity of cooperation, supranational agents should be created where feasible, which would in turn entail a 'cultivated spill over' effect in other policy-related areas. On the same note, with regards to the issues mentioned in the article, supranational agents (e.g. SARSO, the Saarc food bank) could be established with the mandate to streamline discussion and negotiation procedures, steering outcomes in the spirit of regional benefits and consequently, making politics follow economics.
The writer is research associate of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.