India seeks big rise in SAARC trade

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: India will give a major push to deepening trade ties among South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations at the Summit in Colombo, according to highly-placed sources.

With trade between the nations languishing at just five per cent of their total foreign trade, India believes some of the initiatives will bring it to a more respectable level.

A major step will be reduction of the non-tariff barriers (NTBs), a perennial complaint by other SAARC members against India, especially Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. New Delhi is hopeful of an agreement on a SAARC Regional Standard Organisation that will harmonise quality standards.

But till such an organisation comes into being, New Delhi will propose Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)-accredited laboratories in these countries.

Certificates issued by them would be accepted by the Indian Customs authorities. Earlier, India had asked its neighbours to identify the NTBs. Of the 50 listed by them, "we found that the standards barrier was the most significant," said the sources.

India would urge the other SAARC countries to introduce the concept of trade in services, a boom area in international trade. At present, commerce was limited to goods. Following a decision by the SAARC Ministerial Council on this issue in March, the Research & Information System for Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries prepared a conceptual framework agreement.

This paper could be discussed at the summit and the SAARC leadership may give the green signal to start negotiations.

On the electricity front, some initiatives could serve as a precursor to greater interaction.