ISLAMABAD, March 24: The Secretariat of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) has notified ratification of the agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) by all member states.

The secretariat while presenting its compliments to the ministries of foreign/external affairs (Saarc divisions) has stated that the agreement has been ratified by all the member states and copies of all instruments of ratification have been received by the secretariat.

Accordingly, the Saarc secretary-general has issued a notification on March 22, 2006 as per article 22 of the Safta agreement, says a press release issued by the ministry of commerce here on Friday.

The Safta agreement was signed during the 12th Saarc summit held in Islamabad on January 6, 2004. Subsequently, the Committee of Experts on Safta held 12 meetings to finalize the four outstanding issues — sensitive lists, Safta rules of origin, mechanism for compensation of revenue loss to the least developed countries and technical assistance to be provided to the LDCs.

As agreed, the four documents, as annexed to the report of 12th meeting of the COE on Safta (Saarc Secretariat, Kathmandu, November 29 to December 1, 2005), would now form an integral part of the Safta agreement.

The ministries have been requested to give due publicity to the Safta agreement and organize special events for this purpose.—APP