By NNN-Bernama,
Kuala Lumpur : Bangladesh and Egypt will be given flexibility by members of the Group of Eight Islamic Developing Countries (D-8) before they commit to the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) which aims to boost intra-trade among member countries.
Malaysian Commissioner for D-8, Ibrahim Abdullah, said member countries had agreed to allow these countries – which have yet to agree on the rules of origin (ROO) – to prepare before committing to the PTA.
“They have certain constraints which they need to overcome but we agreed whereby, they will be invited to join in whenever they are ready to have those concessions,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of the 25th Session of the D-8 Commissioners here today.
In order for the D-8 PTA to be fully operational, member states should agree on the rules of origin and submit their respective lists of products offered for tariff concessions.
To date, Ibrahim said, six countries had agreed on the ROO. As for the grouping’s PTA, only Malaysia and Iran ratified it.
“We hope that more countries will come and sign the agreement (PTA) but before the agreements could be ratified and enforced, the ROO needs to be endorsed and agreed upon.
“At the moment, six countries have already agreed for the ROO to be endorsed and adopted, so hopefully, they can come on board and ratify the PTA so that the PTA will become enforceable,” he added.
The D-8 PTA which was concluded in 2005, will only be enforced when it has been ratified by at least four member states.
D-8, which was established in 1997, groups Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey.