India calls for removal of all trade barriers at Safta ministerial meet

DELHI: India has asked South Asia Free Trade Agreement or Safta member countries to remove all protectionist trade barriers to achieve regional economies of scale at a faster pace.

Speaking at the Safta ministerial council meeting in Male on Monday, commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma said that not only should sensitive list of items that are protected from tariff elimination be shortened, attempts should also be made to bring down the tariff levels for those items which still remain within the sensitive list.

Trade ministers from the eight Saarc countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghahistan, Nepal and Bhutan are in Maldives for a two days ministerial meeting for better implementation of the Safta agreement.

The South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement on goods came into effect from January 1, 2006 requiring all countries to bring down import tariffs on most goods to 0%-5% in a phased manner.

Sharma also announced that India had earmarked $100 million each for its neighboring countries to undertake developmental work in basic infrastructure projects.

Safta members are also working on extending the agreement to services and India has already submitted its requests list to all members.