Member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will hold a sub- group meeting in the Nepali capital Kathmandu on May 16-17 on "non- tariff barriers" under the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) framework, a government official said on Monday.

According to the official at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the meeting is to be held following a decision of recently concluded Dhaka meeting.

Joint secretaries from the SAARC countries met on April 18-19 in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. The meeting decided to notify national inquiry and review products' list for export of each members of SAARC, the official said on condition of anonymity.

This meeting will be held at the under-secretary level and the outcome of the meeting will be submitted to the meeting of the Committee of Expert meeting, which will be held in October.

Three dozens government officials from SAARC states are attending the meeting.

Almost all the SAARC countries have failed to advance their export among member countries due to regional non-tariff barriers, according to the official.

Standards/quality of goods, laboratory issues and packing mechanisms are some of the issues that will be discussed at the meeting.

SAARC, which was formed in 1985, initially consisted of seven member-countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan will join the next SAARC summit in India in 2007 as full member.

Source: Xinhua