SAARC
NEWSLETTER, VOL.X, NOS.7&8 JULY-AUGUST 1999
NEWS FROM THE SOUTH ASIAN
ASSOCIATION FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION
PRESIDENT OF SRI LANKA,
CURRENT CHAIRPERSON OF SAARC
VISITS THE SECRETARIAT
PRESIDENT OF SRI
LANKA and current Chairperson of SAARC, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who was on a
state visit to Nepal visited the SAARC Secretariat. The President was accompanied by the
Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar; Foreign Secretary (designate), Lionel Fernando; and
other senior members of the Sri Lanka delegation.
The Minister of
Agriculture of His Majesty's Government of Nepal, Chakra Prasad Bastola and the Minister
in attendance was present on the occasion.
Members of the SAARC
Secretariat were presented to the President.
Welcoming the Sri
Lanka President, the SAARC Secretary-General, Nihal Rodrigo identified some key measures
in the economic, social and institutional areas that had been moving ahead in the last
year during Sri Lanka's Chairpersonship of SAARC. He said that the Secretariat was playing
an increasingly active role given SAARC's heightened engagement, particularly in economic
affairs. Members of the staff, who represented all seven Member States were working
together and seem to be enjoying the additional work-load involved.
The Sri Lanka
President thanked the Secretary-General and Secretariat staff for the very warm welcome
accorded to her delegation and herself. She reaffirmed Sri Lanka's renewed commitment to
pursue SAARC programmes developing closer, more fruitful economic cooperation, deepening
understanding among Member States and addressing objectives like poverty alleviation and
social issues holding back the full development, peace and prosperity of South Asia. She
expressed confidence in the future of SAARC.
A group of children
from the Nepal Children's Organisation performed a colourful traditional dance and sang a
song of welcome. The President presented gifts to the children in appreciation of their
enthusiasm.
As a souvenir of her
visit, the Secretary-General presented a full scale reproduction of a tenth century master
piece of Nepali sculpture depicting the birth of the Buddha in Lumbini.
SAFTA COMMITTEE
OF EXPERTS MEET
DELEGATES FROM THE
SEVEN SAARC COUNTRIES met at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu from 15 to 17 July to
commence work on the preparation of a Comprehensive Treaty Regime for the creation of a
free trade area in South Asia. M. Sunderalingam of Sri Lanka chaired the meeting.
Inaugurating the
First Meeting of the Committee of Experts, Nihal Rodrigo, Secretary-General of SAARC
stated that an open national debate has been proceeding in SAARC countries on both the
positive aspects of free trade as also its complex ramifications. He mentioned the need to
be conscious of the inherent economic asymmetries in South Asia and to contend
realistically with structural impediments, discriminatory practices and trade imbalances
which have contributed to constrain trade within the region.
Following detailed
deliberations, the Committee unanimously adopted its Terms of Reference and a work
programme. The Terms of Reference include defining the scope and coverage of SAFTA and the
principles for exceptions; provision of a tariff reduction scheme; identification and the
elimination within an agreed timeframe of all non-tariff and para-tariff barriers;
identification of existing trade-inhibiting infrastructural bottlenecks; preparation of
rules of origin; compliance with WTO provisions, including Articles I and III of GATT
1994; and provision of necessary trade facilitation measures in the area of customs
cooperation etc.
The Terms of
Reference also provide for special measures that are necessary in favour of smaller and
least developed Member States to meet the objectives of SAFTA.
The SAARC
Secretariat has been requested to prepare the preliminary draft of the Treaty for
discussion at the second meeting of the Committee to take place from October 26 to 30,
1999. This Meeting would also consider tariff and non-tariff measures and rules of origin.
India would prepare the preliminary draft of the rules of origin for discussion by the
Committee.
SAARC
STANDING GROUP ON STANDARDS, QUALITY CONTROL AND MEASUREMENT
HOLDS ITS FIRST MEETING
The Standing Group
which was constituted following the recommendation of the SAARC Commerce Ministers met at
its First Meeting in New Delhi 29-30 June and arrived at far-reaching decisions, which
include:
* Recognising the facilitating role that
harmonisation and recognition of standards, conformity assessment tests, testing
procedures and system would play in accelerating intra-SAARC trade, it was agreed that
specific products of interest to the SAARC region would be identified and prioritised so
that harmonisation of specific product standards may be arrived at.
* Through a process of regular consultations,
positions and strategies would be coordinated so as to effectively project and protect the
region’s interests at various international (standards) fora.
* Cooperation and
exchange of information; both on accreditation procedures as also on conformity
assessment, especially in the area of product certification.
* A status report
would be prepared by each Member State on Testing, Measurement and Calibration.
* Training
Facilities and Resource Persons in each Member State would be identified and circulated to
give special importance to HRD.
A Regional Action
was drawn up which India would coordinate for the next three years.
At
the Inaugural Session, SAARC Secretary-General in his message stressed the increasing
importance of standards and their harmonisation in the promotion of trade. P.P. Prabhu,
Commerce Secretary of the Government of India emphasized that all countries would come
under increasing pressure to conform to international standards or face market access
denial. It was accordingly important for the SAARC member states to first understand each
other’s standards and quality control measures and thereafter, to harmonize these
with a view to reaching international standards in the region within an agreed time table.
REGIONAL ACTION
PLAN ONSTANDARDS, QUALITY CONTROL AND MEASUREMENT AGREED UPON
The Standing Group
at its First Meeting in New Delhi agreed to India coordinating and monitoring for the next
three years, a Regional Action Plan, the principle elements of which would be as under:
* Identification of products where intra-SAARC trade
is being affected due to variation in national standards so that harmonisation may take
place.
* Access to
certification scheme relating to product, systems and services of one country by other
countries, including exchange of information on statutory rules and regulations having
bearing on certification.
* Exchanging
information in regulatory systems (Agricultural and Food products, Building Material and
Household Electrical Appliances would be covered in the first instance)
* Promoting mutual
acceptability of the certification process of Member Countries in relation to safety
requirements of products.
* Developing a
process of accreditation systems in individual Member Countries based on international
guidelines.
* Identification of
testing and calibration facilitation in the region.
* Exchanging experts from within the region.
* Listing training programmes offered by different
SAARC Member Countries.
* Sharing the
facility of accreditation bodies so as to avoid duplication of efforts by individual
Member Countries.
* Identifying areas
where consultations would enable the Region to take a collection position at international
standardisation fora.
* Developing
regional standards.
DISCUSSION FORUM
LAUNCHED AT THE SAARC SECRETARIAT
With a view to
benefiting from the experience and knowledge of eminent scholars and opinion-makers
resident in and transiting through Nepal and promote the exchange of ideas on
SAARC-related subjects, the SAARC Secretariat has started a Discussion Forum in Kathmandu.
The idea is to bring together small groups of people together permitting a freer transfer
interaction among them.
The first Speaker at
the Forum was the eminent scholar economist Dr. V.R. Panchamukhi who is currently based in
New Delhi as Director-General of the Research and Information Systems of Non-aligned and
other Developing Countries (RIS). The Meeting was attended by around 30 persons from
industry, government, multilateral agencies and the media.
Dr. Panchamukhi
spoke on the theme of Trends and Opportunities in South Asia. Drawing heavily on
the statistics and findings as brought out in the recently launched RIS publication SAARC
Survey of Development and Cooperation 1998-1999, Dr. Panchamukhi extolled the virtues
of regional economic cooperation specially flagging its urgency. He noted with
satisfaction that the Commerce Secretaries of the SAARC region had begun their
consultations well in advance of the forthcoming WTO Ministerial Conference and that the
region was in the process of forging common positions vis-à-vis the challenges and
obligations the Multilateral Trading System was posing.
Dr. Panchamukhi felt
that it would be faulty to purely look at the current status or growth of intra-SAARC
Trade as a measure of regional cooperation, because the end objective should be to export
outside the region and not focus on the region alone as a market. In this regard, Dr.
Panchamukhi said that it was imperative for the Member States to focus on vertical
integration and investment cooperation and thereby widen the scope of complementaries. He
warned that the phasing out of the Multi-fibre Agreement could have very serious
implications on the textile industries of the Member Countries necessitating urgent
coordination and cooperation among industry of the Member States.
Recalling
experiences both historical and global, Dr. Panchamukhi stressed on economic cooperation
as the building blocks to strengthening the region.
Earlier in the week,
the Prime Minister of Nepal launched the RIS publication SAARC Survey of Development
and Cooperation 1998-1999 and called for intensifying the process of regional economic
cooperation.
LEGAL
EXPERTS ON SAARC CONVENTION ON
SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM MEET IN KANDY
THE MEETING OF LEGAL
EXPERTS from all SAARC Member States took place in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on 17-18 June
pursuant to the directive of the Twenty-fifth Session of the Standing Committee.
The Meeting reviewed
progress in the implementation of the SAARC Convention on Suppression of Terrorism,
formulated guidelines for the future meetings of liaison officers on exchange of
information, and examined the need for updating the SAARC Convention in the light of new
developments in the international legal field. The deliberations were conducted in a
cordial atmosphere, were clearly focused on the technicalities of the issues involved, and
were fruitful.
The Meeting
identified three key elements in the Convention as requisites for its successful
implementation. These are; (a) creation of offences listed in the Convention, as
extraditable offences under the domestic laws of SAARC Member States, (b) treatment of
such offences as "non political offences" for purposes of extradition, and (c)
vesting of extra-territorial criminal jurisdiction in the event of extradition not being
granted.
The delegations
briefed the Meeting on the measures that their respective governments have taken, with a
view to strengthening the legal regime for combating terrorism, at the national level.
Aside from formulating guidelines for the future meetings of the liaison officers, the
Meeting also examined the adequacy of the provision of SAARC Convention in the light of
new international legal instruments. It was agreed that the SAARC Convention provides for
an interim regime to cope with new developments, and that any future review of the
Convention should be based on an assessment of the specific needs of the SAARC region. |
