ISLAMABAD, Oct 24: The Saarc member countries are to hold a fourth round of meeting on South Asia Preferential Trade Arrangement (SAPTA) on Oct 30, to further boost free trade among its members countries.

The three-day meeting scheduled to commence from October 30 to November 1, in Kathmandu would discuss tariff concession on more items to enhance the trade among the member countries, a senior official in the Ministry of Commerce told Dawn on Thursday.

To participate in the meeting, a high level delegation of senior officials from the Ministry of Commerce and Central Board of Revenue was scheduled to leave for Kathmandu on Friday.

Total trade among the Saarc member states during the financial year 2001-02, stood at $470.781 million against $573.789 million during the year 2000-01, a decrease 17.95 per cent.

During the meeting, the officials said that representative of the member countries would deliberate upon tariff concessions on more items, removal of structural impediments and harmonization of customs procedures and documentation.

The Saarc member countries have already exchanged the list of items among each others to be considered for concession during the meeting.

The other issues which would come under discussion for consideration included — banking, port and transportation facilities, setting up of reviewing and monitoring mechanism and consumer equitable benefits to all the member countries, the officials said.

Elaborating the performance of SAPTA so far, they said in the first three round of talks the Saarc member countries have so far given concession on as many as 4,951 items to each others.

Of these, Bhutan has given concession on 266 items to the member countries, India 2,402 items, Maldives 390 items, Nepal 425 items, Pakistan 685 items, Bangladesh 572 items and Sri Lanka on 212 items.

Explaining further, the officials said that in the first round of negotiation under SAPTA, Pakistan granted tariff concession on 46 items against which Islamabad received concession on 106 items from other countries, including 44 items from India, while during the second round of talks Pakistan granted total tariff concession on 351 items, including concession on 230 items to India, whereas Delhi granted concession on 375 items.

And during the third round of negotiation, Islamabad granted tariff concession on about 286 items to the member countries, said the officials.

Pakistan has granted tariff concession ranging between 10 and 15 per cent on items which were mostly agriculture products and industrial raw materials, while it received concession on many value added items.

The council of ministers of Saarc, in its 12th session, signed the framework agreement on SAPTA on April 11, 1993, which was approved at the New Delhi summit in May 1995, and came into force on December 7, 1995.