The eighth meeting of the officials from Bimstec members -- India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand -- put effort to improve the language of the draft agreement and talked on safeguard measures and anti-dumping issues.

Deputy Secretary of Commerce Ministry AKM Fazlur Rahman led Bangladesh side at the trade talks, being attended by around 40 delegates from Bimstec (the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation) members, at Sonargaon Hotel.

A small group comprising seven delegates, each from a member country, talked safeguard measures and anti-dumping issues in the second session of the day.

The TNC, a body of official-level trade experts, will also work on settling trade and investment-related disputes aiming to open a free trade area (FTA) from July 2006, sources said.

The meeting will focus on such issues as sensitive lists, rules of origin and dispute-settlement mechanism to frame a draft agreement on trade in goods, sources added.

The member countries of Bimstec signed a framework in February 2004 to reach an FTA among the members.

The TNC is also scheduled to hold two other meetings -- one in India in November and another in Nepal in December -- before the deadline to complete negotiations by December this year.

The TNC meeting is being held in almost every month since the February 2004 framework agreement, with the latest one in Thailand on September 12-16.

The seven-member trade group agreed to go for the FTA from July 2006, covering only products at the initial stage, with a provision for bringing even services and investment under its purview after 2007.