ISLAMABAD, Aug 2: India’s calls and efforts at the South Asian foreign ministers meeting in Dhaka for an emergency session of the Safta Ministerial Council to address issues with Pakistan did not produce any results, it is learnt.
“The Indian delegation was trying hard to have an emergency meeting of the Safta Ministerial Council convened but it did not materialise as Pakistan was opposed to it,” diplomatic sources in Dhaka told Dawn on Wednesday.
The Pakistan-India row over Safta overshadowed both the Saarc foreign secretaries meeting as well as the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Dhaka that concluded on Wednesday.
India accused Pakistan of jeopardising the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) which became operational from July 1, 2006. Pakistan, however, rejeted the Indian allegation calling it mere propaganda and said it was committed to the process. India first raised the issue at the meeting of the Saarc Standing Committee in Dhaka on Monday and then continued with the Safta mantra the following day at the informal session of the South Asian foreign ministers even though it was not an agenda item.
However, the clear message given to India at both the meetings was that it was not the proper forum for it to raise the issue. Also, it was told that in keeping with the Safta dispute resolution mechanism procedures it should first take up the matter bilaterally with Pakistan.
Agencies add from Dhaka: South Asian foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday that their commerce ministers should resolve all outstanding disputes that have delayed a regional free trade agreement, Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said.
A South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) formally came into effect from July 1, 2006 but is not yet fully operational. Outstanding disagreements between the two largest economies in the grouping, India and Pakistan, over tariff concessions and market access are stalling its full implementation and need to be resolved, economic experts say.
“We discussed the dispute between India and Pakistan over tariff concessions and access. We unanimously agreed that the commerce ministers’ meeting should look into them,” Khan said at the close of two-day South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meeting in Dhaka.
Those and other contentious issues -- including the removal of para- and non-tariff measures and the harmonisation of standards -- will be referred to the next Safta ministerial council, comprising commerce ministers, Khan said.
“When you enter into a contract, there’s an obligation,” India’s state minister for external affairs E. Ahamed told reporters after the meeting.
But the Pakistani move “was a negation of the contract,” he said, adding “it will affect the entire Saarc process in future.”
”It questions the future of the agreement,” added Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told reporters that his government has conferred “Most Favoured Nation (MFN) Plus” status on India.
“When we say it is MFN Plus ... it is because the tariff is lower in the case of Saarc countries and that includes India,” he said.
He said Islamabad reduced tariffs on 90 per cent of the goods India exports to Pakistan and the recent tariff reductions had boosted Indian export growth to Pakistan by as much as 300 to 400 per cent. “Deeds are louder than words,” he said.