Such a position is important not only to build up a regional consensus on issues such as services and 'development dimension', but also to strengthen their negotiating power so that their issues of interest are addressed during multilateral trade negotiations.

This was a major realisation of the participants of the two regional meetings that SAWTEE and its partner organisations based in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka organised from 2-5 July 2006 in Lalitpur, Nepal.

During the first regional meeting on "WTO Doha Round Negotiations and South Asia", the participants discussed the areas of divergence and convergence on Doha Round issues from the perspective of individual South Asian countries and the region as a whole. The participants recommended that the South Asian countries can adopt a two track strategy to have a common position on the issues being negotiated by Members under the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations.

The first track strategy could be to use the forum of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) so that South Asian countries could identify the areas of convergence on issues being negotiated. The participants mentioned that this strategy would tremendously help them build up a consensus to negotiate with a common position on selective issues. Whereas the second track strategy could be to join other groups of countries having similar positions. This strategy would help them gather wider support during multilateral trade negotiations.

The participants were of the view that South Asia can have a common position on the issue of services, for instance, Temporary Movement of Natural Persons under Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It is because South Asia has abundant labour force and possesses a strong comparative advantage in exports of such force to other countries. They also stressed that the South Asian countries can have a common position on issues of technology transfer, technical assistance and implementation aspects.

During the second regional meeting on "Access and Benefit Sharing, Prior Informed Consent and Disclosure Requirement: Issues for South Asia", the participants came up with a consensus that biodiversity-rich South Asia can have a common position on the issue of intellectual property right (IPR) regime and commercial use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.

They emphasised that the South Asian governments should develop a regional position on the issue of the review of the WTO's Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). It should be noted here that Article 27.3(b) of TRIPS is under the review process since 1999 due to its controversial provisions on 'patent' and 'plant variety' protections.

In this context, the participants stated that a South Asian common position on this issue should mention that TRIPS should legally recognise the spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992, of which all South Asian countries are contracting parties. CBD has provisioned for access and benefit sharing (ABS) mechanism and prior informed consent (PIC) for any commercial use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.
Besides having a common position on how TRIPS should be amended to incorporate the equity principles of ABS and PIC, the participants also felt the urgency of the implementation of an ABS Law in each South Asian countries. Not only such a law is critical for enabling the communities, who are the custodians as biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, to benefit from their resources and knowledge, but it would also help the South Asian governments curb biopiracy and misappropriation of traditional knowledge.

Both the regional meetings were attended by more than 70 participants from Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. 

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