The South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) sub-group on non-tariff measures (NTMs) would sit for the second time on 28 January at Lahore in Pakistan in a bid to resolve the issue of non-tariffs barriers, a major hurdle to implementation of the pact on free trade in the South Asian region.

According to the decision at the last ministerial council meeting of the SAFTA, the sub-group will review the existing non-tariffs barriers (NTBs) and para-tariffs barriers (PTBs) that were identified by the SAARC member countries and take steps to remove the snags through bilateral and regional negotiations.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have already identified the NTBs and PTBs they are faced with. These three countries already sent their lists of the two types of barriers to the members of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC), which are signatories of the SAFTA.

Bangladesh has put forth some issues that are considered main barriers to trading with other member-countries of the 7-nation regional forum, especially with India, which include laboratory testing in food items, chemical testing, packaging requirements, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, pre-shipment inspection (PSI) certification, product standard and counter veiling duty.

The SAFTA agreement became effective on July 1 2006, but businesses are yet to take the advantage of reduced tariff rates.

The SAFTA agreement put into effect with a pre-set tariff-cut roadmap aimed at boosting regional trade among the seven nations of SAARC. As per the SAFTA roadmap, the developed members are to bring down their tariffs from zero to 5 per cent in three years while the LDCs like Bangladesh would do that in 10 years.