Greater trade liberalisation called for from SAARC members
Saturday, 24 August 2013 00:00
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By Uditha Jayasinghe
South Asian nations need to fast track economic liberalisation to increase its current US$ 2.5 billion worth of trade and catch up to East Asian trade figures, a top official said yesterday.
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Secretary General Ahamed Saleam addressing the seventh South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) Ministerial Council meeting in Colombo called for greater reduction of sensitive lists, non-tariff barriers and aligning of customs procedures to boost trade in one of the most populous regions in the world.
As per the figures available to the SAARC Secretariat, trade under SAFTA has crossed the US$ 2.5 billion mark which is largely due to member states reducing sensitive lists by at least 20% before the 17th SAARC Summit in 2011, he said.
However, Saleam admitted that SAARC is still often criticised because its regional trade is low compared to other regional organisations such as Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA).
“One of the reasons cited is that the number of trade items in the region is still on the sensitive lists of the member states such as agriculture commodities. I am happy however to note that the Phase II exercise to further reduce sensitive lists and liberalise those lists has been undertaken and two meetings in this regard have already been held,” he told delegates from member countries.
Saleam also acknowledged that larger volumes of trade are taking place via bilateral free trade agreements inked between SAARC members than through SAFTA but insisted that both forms could be integrated for common growth. The Trade and Services Agreement that was signed in 2007 have also been ratified and Saleam appealed to SAARC leaders to fast track its implementation.
SAFTA is an agreement reached on 6 January 2004 at the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan. It created a free trade area of 1.8 billion people in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a framework agreement on SAFTA to reduce customs duties of all traded goods to zero by 2016.
