Officials of SAARC nations discuss COVID-19 crisis, Pakistan stays away

Pakistan on Wednesday stayed away from a video-conference India arranged to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade among the SAARC nations.

The senior officials of the Ministry of Commerce of the Government of India and their counterparts from five of the six other SAARC nations took part in the video-conference and discussed the impact of travel restrictions and the larger COVID-19 situation on intra-regional trade. No representative from Pakistan Government participated in the meeting.

New Delhi arranged the video-conference as a follow-up to the virtual summit Prime Minister Narendra Modi had held on March 15 with the leaders of almost all other SAARC nations to discuss the ways to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its human and economic implications. Though Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had not participated in the virtual summit, his Special Advisor on Health Affairs, Dr Zafar Mirza, represented him.

The representative of Pakistan Government had also participated in the video-conference of the SAARC health officials on March 26.

But Pakistan is the only SAARC nation which has not contributed to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund created by all other nations in the bloc.

The SAARC trade officials, who participated in the video-conference on Wednesday, recognized that the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, transport curbs and travel restrictions have a considerable adverse impact on trade in the South Asian region. “It was stressed that new ways and means be jointly identified to sustain and expand the intra-regional trade until the normal trade channels are fully restored. The imperative need to maintain essential trade within the SAARC region was viewed as an important thrust area for favourable consideration,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated in a press-release issued after the video-conference.

The issues the SAARC trade officials discussed 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, acceptance of scanned copies of documents for clearance of imports by customs and release of payments by banks, resolving issues being faced for exports or imports at land customs stations on land border. “Impact of health issues such as COVID-19 on regional trade and possible measures to mitigate it was seen as a new focus area for discussion in the larger framework of trade facilitation in the SAARC region,” the MEA stated. “The need to enhance the quantum of intra SAARC trade was also highlighted.”

The trade officials of India, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh agreed to remain in close and regular touch through a designated focal point in each country. They also agreed to have further interaction on ideas and proposed actions aimed at early restoration of normal trade in the region after the movement restrictions imposed to contain the COVID-19 crisis end.