Special Session of Supervisory Committee of the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) took place on 30-31 May 2016 in Istanbul. The meeting was held to finalize the Dispute Settlement Document of the PTA and proposal of Bangladesh for 30% Local Value Addition Criteria for LDCs.

Dr. Seyed AliMohammad Mousavi, D-8 Secretary-General, addressed the opening session and reminded the delegations of the necessity to resolve implementation-related issues at this session, for the date of implementation of the PTA was agreed on 01 July 2016 by the D-8 Trade Ministers in their last meeting in February this year in Islamabad. 

Dr. Mousavi said that the D-8 being a Member-State driven organization, agenda of cooperative partnership would be furthered by the Members. He added that in order to reach the intra-trade target of US$ 500 Billion, implementation of PTA was a necessity. He stressed the need to adopt meaningful approach and strive to establish a strong cooperation. He also said that cost of not being able to facilitate implementation of the PTA was high and unproductive; D-8 is a small group of like-minded nations and it must be able to reach a solution faster than any other group. He expressed belief that the spirit of cooperation prevailing in the D-8 was higher than many peer organizations largely because of the fact that the D-8 shared common concerns, challenges and opportunities which we have the willingness to deal with collectively.