Trade Articles |
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SAARC Nations To Go for Free Trade
Dotting the importance of regional groupings after the collapsible of the WTO talks, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka with 5 other south nations has pledged to curtail the trade restrictions for spurring the growth rate in the south asian region. The members of the South Asian Association for Regional Corporation(SAARC), which also includes Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Bhutan, has shown their consent for decreasing the number of items shown in the list of commodities, which are restricted from the free trading. In south asian countries around 80% of the world's population live and such nations have banned around 800 items from free trading. Such situation deteriorates the trading in south asia as a result this region contributes less than 2 per cent in the international commerce. The world bank has calculated that south asia is the home to around 1.4 billion people and nearly 40% of them live on less than $1 a day. It is imperative for the south region to escalate their growth rate from 6% to 8% by allowing more and more trade chances, which in turns help in eliminating poverty. In the 15th SAARC summit in Colombo, prime minister of Bhutan Mr. Lyonchhen Jigme Y. Thinley said that "We need to open our eyes to the wonder of the great opportunities that we missed". The India has decided to bring down the number of its items in the 'negative list' from 744 to 500 with a motive of trading with the least developed countries (LDCs)- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives, of the SAARC. India prunes the list of negative items and thereby allowing duty free entry to the export items from LDCs. The Union Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said "As more and more global standards emerge within SAARC, we should cooperate to see that this happens within our own countries. We are trying to see that this transformation is least painful for the producers within the country and those connected with us supply chain outside our country". He added that "in keeping with our commitments, we have already notified the advancement of the trade liberalization programme in respect to LDCs by one year and with effect from January 1, 2008, the import duty on all items other than those in the negative list has been reduced to zero." Free trading would help in boosting the economic activity in the region. Presently India is earning around $100 million through export to the SAARC member nations and imports have insignificant value. India is sharing nearly 10-11% of Maldive's total import followed by Singapore and Sri Lanka. About SAARC The economic, political organization of 8 nations, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) was formed on 8th December, 1985. Due to its population size, its influence size is considered to be largest as compare to any other organization. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan are its forming members. During 14th summit in april 2007, Afghanistan has joined the organization as its 8th member. It is headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal. SAARC lays down the foundation for south asian people to work in the direction of harmony and friendship. It helps in accelerating the growth rate of economic and social development in its member nations. The current areas of cooperation of SAARC are -
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