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| Tuesday, 15 June 2004 |
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Lanka hosts third COE meeting under SAFTA Sri Lanka hosted the Third Meeting of the Committee of Experts (COE) of the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) from June 7-9. Delegations from all SAARC Member States - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka attended the meeting. It was chaired by T. Collure, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Commerce. The Sri Lanka delegation was led by K. J. Weerasinghe, Director General of the Department of Commerce. The delegation included representatives from the Ministries of Commerce, Foreign Affairs, Industries, Finance, Customs, Export Development Board and the Institute of Policy Studies. The Framework Agreement of SAFTA was concluded at the 12th SAARC Summit in Islamabad in January 2004. The Agreement will be valid from 2006. The COE was established in order to conclude negotiations on outstanding issues relating to Rules of Origin, Sensitive Lists, Technical Assistance for Least Developing countries as well as the establishment of a Compensation Mechanism. At the opening of the meeting, the Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs H.M.G.S. Palihakkara said, "It is no exaggeration that the achievement of the core objectives of SAARC itself will depend on the economic and other benefits that will result from the eventual operationalisation of SAFTA". The Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs S. Wirithamulla in his keynote address said that he was optimistic that the high level of commitment and political will prevailing in the region would contribute to moving the SAFTA negotiating process forward and faster as desired by the leaders of Member States. The Colombo session of the COE deliberated on the outstanding issues which have been the subjects of negotiations at the previous COE meetings held in Kathmandu and Islamabad. Discussions in Colombo focused on modalities for negotiating the sensitive lists under the SAFTA agreement, the mechanism for compensation of loss of revenue as well as a discussion of technical assistance to LDC member states. The COE has made progress in its deliberations on Rules of Origin under the SAFTA Agreement. Further negotiations on the outstanding issues would be resumed at the next COE meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan in August. |
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