ISLAMABAD, Jan 21: An official delegation will leave for Bangkok in the first week of next month to hold the second round of study group meeting for initiation of talks on the Early Harvest Programme (EHP).

A commerce ministry official told Dawn on Saturday that the meeting was scheduled for February 2 in Thailand to pave the way for early talks on the EHP — zero rate of duty programme.

The first meeting of the study group was held in Islamabad on November 24, 2005. Both the sides had already nominated one person each for the study group. Thailand nominated an academic whereas Pakistan nominated a government official.

Pakistan’s delegation would be led by joint-secretary Shahid Bashir.

The study group would deliberate on various issues, including trade regimes, tariff and non-tariff measures. The study group would also analyze and discuss bilateral trade statistics and global trade trends, identify complementarities, with special focus on agriculture, textiles, food preparations, fisheries, sports and surgical goods.

The group would also discuss outline of the framework agreement to be concluded. In future meetings, cooperation in the field of services and investments would also be discussed.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his recent visit to Thailand requested his counterpart for initiation of early negotiations on the EHP to increase the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries.