New Delhi: Trade officials of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries except Pakistan held a video conference Wednesday, deliberating on creating a larger framework of trade facilitation to offset adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the region.
It was stressed in the conference that new ways and means be identified to ‘sustain and expand’ the intra-regional trade until the normal trade channels are fully restored, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.
At an India-initiated video conference of SAARC leaders, March 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that the member nations of the bloc should come together to jointly fight against the pandemic.
SAARC is a grouping comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“All SAARC countries, except Pakistan, participated in the video conference,” the MEA said about the deliberations among the trade officials. They discussed specific issues like facilitation of trade through pragmatic solutions in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
The MEA said the need to maintain essential trade within region was viewed as an important thrust area, adding the officials deliberated on having larger framework of trade facilitation in region.
“Some specific issues addressed at the video conference included facilitation of trade through pragmatic solutions such as provisional clearance of imports at preferential duty with suitable conditions, provisional acceptance of digitally signed certificates of origin,” the MEA said in a statement.
The ministry also said the pragmatic solutions examined at the conference also included acceptance of scanned copies of documents for clearance of imports by customs and release of payments by banks and resolving issues being faced for exports and imports at land customs stations.
PTI