Commerce and trade ministers from the seven member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- will attend the meeting.

Bangladesh will request the Safta member countries to reduce registration, licence and marking fees they charge from exporters, mainly of drug and cement, to give a boost to intra-Saarc trade that still falls far short of achieving its vast potential.

The country's potential for exporting items like cement and pharmaceuticals to the Safta countries cannot be utilised due to high fees for registration, licence and the like in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh will request the member-countries to have a Safta Mutual Recognition Arrangement on the standards of the products so that the countries can avert complexities involved in having standard certification from other countries.

It will also request India to improve infrastructure in-between Banglabandha and Kakravita on priority basis and reduce high LC margins imposed by the Indian banks in the northeastern states.

The Safta agreement, signed during the 12th Saarc Summit held in Islamabad on January 6, 2004, came into force from January this year.

As agreed by the member states, tariff concessions under it will be effective from July.

The Safta Ministerial Council (SMC) and the Safta Committees of Experts (CoE) were established under the agreement.

The first Safta CoE meeting on April 18-19 will precede the first SMC meeting.

The SMC, comprising commerce/trade ministers of the member states is the highest decision making body and responsible for implementation of the agreement. It will meet once a year or more often as and when considered necessary.

The CoE, comprising a senior economic official from each member state, will support the SMC and monitor, review and facilitate implementation of the agreement. The CoE is to meet at least once in every six months.