July 16, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

ISLAMABAD, July 15: The second ministerial meeting of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) here on Tuesday started discussions on the proposed agreement on trade to work out a uniform tariff for all products to be traded among the member countries within a period of eight years.

Official sources told Dawn that under the proposed agreement the import tariffs are proposed to be scaled down to 15 per cent to increase intra-regional trade.

According to officials, in this regard, a high-level group of ECO experts had already held five meetings and during the current meeting it was expected to finalize the modalities of the agreement. The officials said that it was felt by the member countries that to increase intra-regional trade, a regional system was needed to be evolved under which the goods could be imported in the ECO member countries on concessional tariffs.

Following the consensus reached by the experts on the modalities and procedures of the agreement, the officials said commerce ministers of ECO member countries are expected to sign the agreement on Thursday. Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali will inaugurate the ministers’ meeting scheduled to be held on July 17.

According to an official announcement Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan inaugurated the three-day ECO meeting, which was attended by high-level experts and officials to discuss the various proposals aimed at increasing the intra-regional trade among the member countries.

The meeting was attended by delegations from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and ECO secretariat. The delegates would discuss the possibilities of further reducing trade barriers and to facilitate regional exchange of goods and services.