ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: India has agreed to scale down customs duties below the applied level for two neighbouring countries -- Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta).

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the decision came in response to Pakistan’s protest that despite reduction in customs duties in three phases under Safta by India, the duties are still higher than the Indian normal customs duties for Pakistani products under the treaty.

India has unilaterally brought down its customs tariff to around 10 per cent during the last two years. At the time of making commitment for reduction in customs duties under the Safta agreement, the Indian duties were around maximum 15 per cent.

The sources said that the Indian delegation agreed to consider Pakistan’s proposal at the 13th meeting of the Committee on Economic Cooperation (CEC) of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), held after a lapse of three years in Dhaka last week.

The Indian government has also agreed to come up with a roadmap in December for eliminating or mitigating the non-tariff barriers, which restrict entry of goods into the Indian market.

A ministerial task force had already been constituted by the Indian government to identify these barriers and suggest measures for their redressal. The task force report is expected to be submitted to the commerce ministry in December, the sources added.

This move of India would certainly help in facilitating imports from the South Asian countries. However, if these NTBs were either removed or relaxed it would certainly help in increasing export of minerals, marble, and textile products from Pakistan.

Pakistan had already submitted a long list of the NTBs to the Indian government last year for consideration. The removal of these barriers has been linked with the liberalisation of trade with India.

According to the sources commerce secretaries from eight countries have also decided to take a common position on various issues under the Doha Round negotiations for fostering increased regional trade against the backdrop of the changing global scenario.

It was agreed that the Geneva-based ambassadors of the Saarc member states will meet to find out a common stance on the Doha Round negotiations.

During the meeting, the secretaries also decided to undertake a new project to ensure cooperation for development of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the region.

It also endorsed the recommendations made by the standing group on Standards to establish a South Asian Regional Standard Organisation (Sarso), which will be located in Dhaka at the premises of Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI).

The meeting underscored the need for exploring the potential of renewable energy and biotechnology through regional cooperation to meet the mounting demand for energy in the Saarc region. India, which has expertise in renewable energy, will undertake necessary actions in this regard.

Regarding the issuance of Safta certificate of origin, the meeting decided that all the member states would inform the Saarc secretariat about the certificates issued by each country every six months. It also decided to scale down the sensitive list to ensure benefit to the least developed countries (LDCs) in the Saarc region.

During the meeting India informed that it would unilaterally provide duty-free access to the LDCs on items, which are not in the sensitive list by December 2007.