An Asian free-trade zone aimed ultimately at encompassing nearly 2 billion people moved a step closer finalization yesterday as seven nations met to work out the final details.
Five nations -- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand -- were due to approve a deal over the weekend to create a free-trade zone by 2017.
Impoverished Nepal -- racked by a Maoist insurgency -- and tiny Bhutan also joined the meeting, but there was no immediate word on when they would accede formally to the pact.
"Ultimately, it is going to be a link between SAFTA and AFTA," Thai Commerce Ministry official Chana Kanaratanadilok told reporters.
The minister was referring to the seven-nation South Asian Free Trade Area and the ASEAN Free Trade Area being established by the 10-nation Association of South East Asian Nations.
South Asia has a population of more than 1.3 billion and Southeast Asia is home to 500 million people.
Trade ministers were putting the final touches to a pact which proposes the five countries start cutting import taxes on traded items in mid-2006.
Under the pact -- to be signed today -- India, Sri Lanka and Thailand plan to charge no tariffs on goods and services trade between them by July 2012, five years ahead of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
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