The Hindu Business Line : SAARC: India prunes negative list to 500 items

Council meeting: The Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath (right), and the Secretary-General of SAARC, Mr Sheel Kant Sharma, at the SAFTA Ministerial Council meeting in the Capital on Monday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, March 3

India today announced the pruning of negative list from 744 items to around 500 items for the least developed country members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives, thereby, enlarging the scope of duty-free entry to the export items from these countries.

Addressing the third SAFTA (SAARC Free Trade Agreement) Council meeting here, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Mr Kamal Nath, has called for a review of negative lists to expand trade in goods and enlarging the scope for further trade co-operation among SAARC countries.

He said the necessary notification of the revised negative lists voluntarily by India would follow within a few months. He added, “in keeping with our commitments, we have already notified the advancement of the trade liberalisation programme in respect to LDCs by one year and with effect from January 1, 2008, the import duty on all items other than those in the negative list has been reduced to zero.”

The meeting was attended by Dr Sheel Kant Sharma, Secretary-General of SAARC; Mr. G.K. Pillai, Commerce Secretary; and representatives from the SAARC region.

While drawing the attention of the participants, Mr Kamal Nath said that the regional study on ‘Trade in Services’ has been completed, which would give the government an opportunity for an effective services agreement among SAARC countries. As regards for upgradation of global supply chain, he said that it would be natural for us to adopt technical standards in accordance with global benchmarks.

“In India, we are trying to see that this transformation is least painful both for the producers within the country and those connected with our supply chain outside the country.

“Various SAARC mechanisms have focussed on developing specific short, medium and long-term co-operation projects to deliver direct benefits to the people. Operationalisation of the SAARC Development Fund and full implementation of SAFTA would pave the way for this development.

“The South Asian University and the SAARC Food Bank can also bring benefits to South Asia,” the Minister said.

The meeting finalised the Draft Protocol for implementation of SAFTA Agreement by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, thereby paving the way for formal entry of Afghanistan in SAFTA. The meeting recommended that Afghanistan would be treated at par with Maldives as far as Mechanism for Compensation of Revenue Loss (MCRL) under SAFTA is concerned.

The meeting welcomed the offer of Maldives to host the fourth meeting of SAFTA Committee of Experts and the SAFTA Ministerial Council.

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