The contentious issues relating to the implementation of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) will be resolved in the 12th meeting of the Committee of Experts of theSouth Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

The SAARC member states are committed to enforcing the SAFTA accord from January 1, 2006 by resolving the three unresolved issues, The Daily Star reported Thursday.

The contentious issues are the rules of origin, sensitive list of products and the revenue compensation mechanism of the SAFTA accord.

Officials in Dhaka said the issues related to the technical assistance for the least developed countries (LDCs) in the seven-nation forum were sorted out during the 11th meeting of the SAARC Committee of Experts held in Kathmandu earlier this month.

Excepting some disagreements, the experts of the member states have finalized the entire volume of the SAFTA accord and they are hopeful to finalize the remaining issues during the next meeting so that the accord can be enforced from the stipulated date.

The entire SAFTA accord will be implemented in phases as sortedout by the experts, so that the SAARC members would be able to begin its implementation on schedule.

The 11th meeting of the SAARC Committee of Experts held on October 18-19 had narrowed down differences on two issues - rules of origin list of products and technical assistance to LDCs.

However, it is still to make a significant headway on the othertwo issues - sensitive list of products and revenue compensation mechanism for the LDCs in the SAARC domain - Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives.

The developing members of SAARC - India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka- have pledge technical assistance to the LDC partners for their capacity building. They, however, have not fully enforced the lists of products on which LDCs have sought special derogation, maintaining the value addition criteria for them at 20 percent.

The LDC members have urged that the revenue compensation shouldbe made effective from the third year of SAFTA enforcement till the final year of tariff liberalization program. However, the developing partners, India in particular, have argued that it be limited for three years only.

Officials here said the seven South Asian countries are now determined to enforce the SAFTA as per schedule as several previous attempts to enhance trade in the region had failed.

Source: Xinhua