As the Safta ministerial meeting begins in Dhaka tomorrow, India will press for tariff liberalisation programme and removal of restrictions on movement of goods in a bid to kick start the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) from July 1.
Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, who will head the Indian delegation at the meeting, will also insist on having a select negative list of items meant to
mainly prevent cheap imports of sensitive items while opening up more items for free trade.
Under FTAs the world over, negative list approach is preferred as it throws open more trade opportunities while addressing sensitivies of participating countries.
Negative list under any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is the list of items on which the tariff liberalisation programme (reduction of tariffs) is not applied.
Pakistan, which ratified the agreement recently, has been keen on the positive list approach, as followed under Sapta, and is yet to clarify if it would go for negative list in Safta. Pakistan has so far stuck to selective trade liberalisation rather than opening up imports of all items when tariff cuts under Safta come into effect.
India has already mounted efforts to convince Pakistan to liberalise imports and stick to a negative list like all Saarc member-countries.
"We want tariff liberalisation to begin from July and all other import restrictions dismantled. Of course, each country is free to have a negative list of sensitive items," Ramesh told reporters here on Tuesday.
There should be no artificial restriction on movement of goods, he said.
Ramesh will also hold bilateral meetings with Ministers from the six partner countriesSri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives.
With Sri Lanka, the issue of imports of vanaspati and pepper under the bilateral FTA, which has caused worries to Indian manufacturers, will be taken up, he said.
The Minister will attempt to give a push to tea exports to Pakistan as also seek to imports of molasses from there when he meets his Pakistani counterpart. As of now, Pakistan does not allow import of tea from India though a small quantity is imported through Dubai.
Meanwhile in a bid to boost trade in South Asia, the Indian government is planning to set up an Inland Port Corporation of India and 13 new dry ports at an estimated expenditure of Rs 900 crore.
The proposal, which involves setting up eight new dry ports on Indo-Bangladesh border, four on Indo-Nepal border and one at Indo-Pak border, is likely to go to Cabinet by the middle of next month, Ramesh said.
The project, likely to be implemented by RITES under public-private partnership, is expected to be completed within three years, he added.
