Saarc officials meet today to thrash out trade issues
Staff Correspondent
High-level government officials from seven South Asian nations meet in Dhaka today for a three-day negotiation on major trade issues that they need to settle for establishing a free trade area by 2006. Officials from the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs, Bangladesh Tariff Commission and National Board of Revenue will talk on behalf of Dhaka at the joint secretary level meeting about sensitive list of products and rules of origin with their counterparts of other Saarc countries. Bangladesh has prepared a list of 1,398 items out of the total 5,226 to keep them out of the free trade deal to avoid major revenue loss as well as protect domestic industries. According to sources, Indian side may come with a long negative list in the meeting. But three developing economies India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka may be flexible and accommodative to minimise the differences with the least developed economies of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) at the fifth meeting of its kind. Presently, Bangladesh has major trade deficit with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well as with least developed economies like Nepal and Bhutan within Saarc.
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