April 20, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

DHAKA, April 19: Developing countries -– India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -– will lower customs duty by 40 per cent in 2006 for the products originating from the least developed countries -– Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives -– under the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) agreement.

This was stated in a roadmap finalised at a meeting of the Safta committee of experts here on Wednesday.

These developing countries will further lower the duty by 30 per cent in 2007 before eliminating it in 2008, says the report of the meeting.

The least developed countries, on their part, will lower the duty by five per cent in 2006, another five per cent in 2007 before phasing it out between December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2015, for the products from developing countries.

The meeting in Dhaka concluded on Wednesday, with the adoption of the report that contains a 30-point decision. According to the roadmap, the developing countries will slash the duty by 10 per cent on July 1 and a further 30 per cent on December 31.

As far as the duty reduction by the developing countries is concerned, the report says the three countries will bring down their duty to 20 per cent in equal instalments between July 1, 2006 and December 31, 2007 in the first phase.

If the customs duty of any developing country is lower than 20 per cent, then a 10 per cent duty cut will take place in 2006 and 10 per cent more on December 31, 2007.

They will lower their duty between zero and five per cent for themselves between 2008 and 2013, according to the report. Sri Lanka will, however, have a one-year grace period.

The decision of the committee is required to be approved by the appropriate authorities of the member countries and conveyed to the Saarc secretariat latest by May 2006.

The Safta agreement came into effect from January 1, 2006 under which trade liberalisation will kick off from July 1, 2006.

The meeting, however, failed to come up with a concrete decision on non-tariff barriers, sources privy to the meeting said.