Fourth
CoE meet in Thimpu: Sensitive list, rules of origin
to dominate agenda
KATHMANDU, August 2
A three-day long meeting of SAARC Committee of Experts
(COE) kicked off today in Thimpu, the capital city
of Bhutan. The fourth round of talks, being held between
the seven South Asian countries for adopting the South
Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) on time, is likely to
focus on issues like country sensitive list and rules
of origin.
The SAFTA sensitive list and rules of origin are
two crucial aspects of the regional free trade area
pact, on which the member countries are yet to agree.
The CoE needs to settle the issues by 2005, as the
12th SAARC summit has already endorsed the Enforcement
o SAFTA from 2006.
As per an agreement reached earlier in CoE meets,
delegation from each member country exchanged initial
‘sensitive lists’ and negotiate on ‘rules
of origin’ at this meeting. A sensitive list
contains the tradable items that would not get any
tariff concession in SAFTA. Nepal has short listed
about 1,200 products in its country sensitive list
for SAFTA and developed product in its country sensitive
list for SAFTA and developed product profiles of
over 5,000 commodities for negotiations under the
rules of origin.
According to SAFTA protocol, non-LDC countries
will bring down their custom tariff rate to 20%,
while LDC countries will slash their average tariff
rate to 30% during the first phase between 2006-2008.
The non- LDC countries will have to do the same
before 2016. The CoE’s fifth meeting will
be held in Bangladesh on October 4-6 and the sixth
meeting would take place in India on December2-4.
