Trade officials voice concerns over non-tariff barriers in regional trade

Trade officials of South Asian nations have pointed out non-tariff barriers as the major obstacles in intra-regional trade. Despite tremendous trade potentials within the South Asia region, lack of trade infrastructures, complicated customs procedures and certification on quality of goods have been creating roadblocks in the process of regional trade enhancement. Officials from SAARC member countries said this on Wednesday -- the second day of three-day meeting of the Committee of Experts on Reduction of the Sensitive Lists and the Committee of Experts on Non-tariff Measures and Para Tariff Measures (NTM and PTM) under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) - in the capital. “Representatives from all participating countries have realized the need of customs reform, improvement of trade infrastructure, removal of visa barrier for business people, simplification in movement of goods as well as vehicles, and improved facilities for warehousing of trade goods to pave the way for greater trade within the region,” Rameshwor Pokharel, under-secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), told Republica. In the meeting, the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry made a presentation on existing problems in regional trades created by non-tariff trade barriers and ways for settling them. Echoing the issues raised in the presentation, participating trade officials also voiced concerns over the complicated customs procedures, lengthy process for quality certification, difficulty in securing visa for business people, and poor infrastructure in crucial trade routes and customs points. “As representatives from participating countries expressed the similar concerns on non-tariff barriers, tomorrow´s meeting will set a common agenda to remove the non-tariff barriers in the regional trade,” said Pokharel. Jiba Raj Koirala, joint-secretary at the MoCS, said member countries stressed the need to reduce non-tariff barriers in line with the provisions envisaged by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The meeting will recommend measures to be taken for eliminating non-tariff barriers. The measures will be approved at the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka in August. The Committee of Experts on Reduction of the Sensitive Lists will finalize the draft measures on removal of non-tariff barriers at a meeting on August 21-22 in Sri Lanka before forwarding it the SAARC Council of Ministers´ meeting. The trade officials, who are representing SAARC nations except Afghanistan, have already agreed to finalize the fresh lists of sensitive goods from the respective countries by January 2014. Member countries will get the sensitive list endorsed at the Council of Ministers´ meeting at Sri Lanka before they are submitted to SARRC Secretariat by the end of this year. SAARC countries have put a number of items in the list of sensitive goods, putting higher tariffs on imports in a bid to protect domestic industries. Nepal has put 1,036 items in the sensitive list of goods imported from the non-LDCs and 998 items imported from LDCs. Similarly Sri Lanka has listed 906 items and 845 items, Bangladesh has 993 and 987 items and India has 614 items and 25 items for non-LDCs and LDCs, respectively. Similarly, the Maldives has 154 items, Bhutan has 156 items, Afghanistan has 858 items and Pakistan has 936 items in the sensitive list. As per the SAFTA provisions, members countries have to bring down the sensitive items to 5 percent of the total number of imports from the SAARC members nations.