The South Asian Free Trade Area ( SAFTA) Committee of Experts (COE) will sit for its maiden meeting Tuesday in Dhaka, following which, the Ministerial Council of Commerce Ministers will take decision on operational modalities of regional free trade, private news agency UNB reported Monday.

"The meetings will try to remove the trade asymmetry among the member-states," Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury said Monday after a meeting on preparation for holding the SAFTA meetings.

He said that the delegates will hold talks on non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to trade as well as trimming the respective sensitive lists.

Bangladesh will also look for means of increasing its trade with India so that it could reduce the huge trade gap with the neighboring country.

The COE and the Council will review the status of sensitive lists, technical assistance and revenue-loss compensation to the least developed members by the developing members as agreed in the SAFTA deal.

The meetings will also consider a proposal for holding SAFTA Ministerial Council preceded by COE meetings annually in each of the member-states to monitor and review the achievements under the free-trade regime.

The SAFTA agreement became effective on Jan.1 while tariff concessions under the agreement are scheduled to be effective on July 1.

Source: Xinhua