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ISLAMABAD: Commerce Secretaries of SAARC member states began discussion on draft agreement of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) here on Tuesday.

Secretary Commerce, Kamal Afsar was appointed Chairman of the Committee. All seven Commerce Secretaries of SAARC countries along with SAARC Secretary General Q.A.M.A. Rahim are attending the meeting.

Prior to this, six meetings of the Committee of Experts (COE) at the level of Joint Secretaries were held to discuss South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA). During those meetings consensus was achieved on majority of articles of SAFTA Draft.

In order to achieve consensus on the remaining articles, the level of the Committee has been raised to the Committee on Economic Cooperation (CEC) comprising the Commerce Secretaries of the SAARC countries.

The Committee would discuss all issues regarding free trade in the SAARC region and would endeavour to reach a consensus oriented draft SAFTA Treaty, by the end of two days' discussion.

According to official sources the frame work on SAFTA is likely to be finalised in two days deliberations and its recommendations will be put up before the SAARC summit for final approval. The Secretaries of Commerce are likely to evolve a strategy to bring down prevailing tariff rates ranging from 25% to 30% in different member states, to the level of zero to five percent during next five to ten years.

The clear road map was already in place to ensure implementation on SAFTA arrangements. SAFTA will be implemented in two phases and a negative list would be prepared to promote trade among the member states. The delegations consisting of Suhel Ahmed, Secretary Ministry of Bangladesh, Achyut Bhandari, Director General Ministry of Trade and Industry Bhutan, Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary Ministry of Commence India, Dienesh Chandra Pyakaurel Secretary Ministry of Commerce Nepal, and Harsha Wickramasinghe Secretary Ministry of Commerce of Sri Lanka are participating the two day meeting.