South Asia nations agree on free trade

Gulf Daily News ^ | 1/3/04

[Valin]

South Asia's foreign ministers agreed on three key pacts including a free trade agreement to be signed at a regional summit opening in Islamabad this weekend, setting a positive note ahead of the landmark seven-nation meeting.
"This development (agreement on three documents) would contribute in achieving even bilateral progress," said India's Foreign Secretary Shashank, who uses only one name, at a briefing, striking a buoyant tone on the eve of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's arrival in host country Pakistan.

The accords were reached during meetings that began on a high note when Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri publicly embraced, raising hopes for cordiality between the rival states' leaders at their first encounter since near-war in 2002.
Agreements on free trade, terrorism and a social charter top the agenda of the 12th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc), which groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"Three documents have been agreed," Shashank told a briefing after the foreign ministers' meeting, referred to as the Council of Ministers.

They include an expanded regional terrorism agreement, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta), and a social charter, he said.
"Contrary to the earlier feeling that there might be some delays, somehow considerable progress has been made during consultations of the Council of Ministers."

The Safta had met problems in earlier negotiations, mainly over smaller countries' anxieties that they would need extra concessions to create a level playing field with India and Pakistan.
"However ... it was possible to get over most of the differences and an agreement has been reached even on Safta. The text of the document may have just been cleaned up," Shashank said.
Kasuri was buoyant on prospects for the signing of Safta, which business leaders are hoping will transform the home of half the world's poor into an powerful trade bloc.
"There was a great degree of warmth and candour and friendship," Kasuri said of the foreign ministers' meeting.
"If we proceed in the same manner in the second session (today) maybe our heads will be, or the summit will be, ready to sign the Safta agreement."
Shashank said agreement was reached on an "additional protocol" to a 16-year-old anti-terrorism agreement, referring to an extra clause on choking terrorist funding.

A Pakistani official taking part in the negotiations on the expanded terrorism pact said it was directed at international terrorism, insisting it did not relate to the insurgency in disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan considers a struggle for self-determination and India considers terrorism.
"The drafting and approval of the anti-terrorism protocol ... marks a step towards developing a coherent regional response for dealing with the threat of transnational terrorism," the official said.

A report on poverty alleviation was also approved, as was the establishment of a regional development bank, Shashank said.
It was also decided that India would prepare a report on a freedom-from-hunger project within the next three months.

Saarc heads of government will open the three-day summit, the forum's first in two years, tomorrow. Observers are hoping the nuclear neighbours' leaders will meet for the first time since the tensions on the summit's sidelines.

[AM2000]

I don't know how significant this really is.

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[Dog Gone]

I think it's pretty significant. When countries get extensive and profitable trade between them, they are far less motivated to blow each other up.

It's why I think China would never nuke us.