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.