Dhaka, Sep 26 (bdnews24.com) -- The seven Bimstec member countries Wednesday arrived at a consensus on the rules of origin criteria and the size of the negative list, to facilitate implementation of the text of the FTA accord on trade in goods.
"We arrived here with some outstanding issues. We're very optimistic now that they will be finalised before the next TNC meeting due in November in Delhi," Manel de Silva, a member of the Sri Lankan delegation and chair of the 15th TNC, told reporters after the conclusion of the three-day meeting.
"We hope everything will be ready for leaders at the Delhi ministerial meeting in February next year to sign a free trade agreement," she said.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation was formed in 1997 by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Thailand to boost trade under an FTA.
Since the bloc's FTA on goods is re-scheduled to come into place from 2008, negotiators (joint and deputy secretary level officials) are optimistic about the outcome of the 15th TNC meeting.
Rules of origin, negative list, dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) and safeguard measures are four major components of the FTA accord on trade in goods. Of them, members had agreed only on DSM earlier.
Now contentious issues such as rules of origin and negative list have been added to the consensus list.
The members have agreed that the size of the negative list may be 15 percent of the total 5,200 WTO tariff lines, de Silva said.
Earlier at the meeting, Bangladesh proposed that the size of the list should be 20 percent, which was backed by Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
On the other hand, Thailand and Myanmar wanted it at 10 percent.
About the rules of origin criteria, the members agreed on 35 percent plus CTSH (customs tariff sub-heading) for the developing countries—India, Thailand and Sri Lanka and 30 percent plus CTSH for the least developed countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal.
"The 15th round of Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) meeting in Dhaka has explored a possible option on RoO and the negative list for a consensus," de Silva said.
She said that the TNC asked the members to seriously consider the options at their capitals so that the outstanding issues could be resolved at the next meeting in India.
"To facilitate the speedy resolution of the RoO, it has been agreed that each country will prioritise their lists of product specific rules (PSR) and circulate 25 PSRs by Oct 24 this year," the Sri Lankan delegate said.
The members also discussed the transit issue among them. "We recognised transit as an important issue," de Silva said.
Members signed a framework agreement on the FTA on Feb 8, 2004. Bangladesh entered the deal on June 25, 2004.
But implementation of FTA missed the initial deadline of 2006, because the differences that ran deep among members on the core issues, including the RoO and sensitive list.
The next TNC meeting will be held in India from Nov 12-16 2007. The delegates suggested Cochin as the venue.
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