SAARC to meet on trade

SAARC to meet on trade

ISLAMABAD (Reuters): Foreign ministers of a seven-nation South Asian bloc will meet in Colombo on March 18-19 to discuss economic cooperation, including plans to set up a free trade area, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

A spokesman told reporters that the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers were also likely to discuss disputes between their countries on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which also includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The meeting would review implementation of the decisions at a SAARC summit held in Colombo last July and progress on speeding up economic cooperation, a ministry statement said.

"In particular it would review the progress under the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA) and the transition to South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)," it said.

SAPTA came into force in December 1995 and a SAARC summit in 1997 in the Maldives decided to cut tariffs and remove non-tariff barriers with the aim of setting up SAFTA by 2001.