ISLAMABAD, March 6: The Saarc countries have agreed to finalize negative lists and rules of origin by the end of the year 2004 to facilitate the timely development of the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) , for which an agreement was signed among member countries in January this year.

Official sources in the commerce ministry told Dawn on Saturday that the decision to this effect was taken during the meeting of the committee of experts of the member countries in Kathmandu recently.

The sensitive lists would include those items, which would not be considered for duty reduction under the Safta to provide protection to the local industry, the officials added.

These lists would be prepared by each member country with due consultation with the relevant stakeholders. Following this the lists would be discussed in a series of six meetings for its early finalization by the end of this year, the officials said.

According to the officials, it was also decided in the Katmandu meeting that from now onward the experts committee meeting would be held in rotation in the capitals of the member countries.

The next meeting was proposed to be held in Islamabad on May 3-5. During this meeting, the officials said the member countries would exchange the list of items for placing them under the sensitive lists.

The customs officials of the Saarc-member countries would also finalize the rules of origin which would be shared with each other during the proposed meeting in Islamabad.

The Saarc-member countries signed Safta on January 6, 2003 with a pledge to scale down their tariff in two phases to 0-5 per cent that will come into force on January 1, 2006 and will be fully implemented by December 31, 2015.