May 26, 2003	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23,1424

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ISLAMABAD, May 25: India is continuously blocking Pakistan’s efforts to enter into various regional trade agreements, which provide preferential trade among member countries of South Asia.

Official sources told Dawn that Islamabad was trying for the last many years to become an active member of Bangkok Agreement (BA) to take advantage of tariff preferences of the other countries to enhance its share in the regional trade.

During a recently held meeting of the BA standing committee, officials said, India as always voiced opposition to Pakistan’s accession to the agreement.

India along with other South Asian countries including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh enjoyed tariff preferences with other BA member countries including China, which joined the agreement in the year 2000.

Officials said that under those regional agreements, the Chinese government had allowed preferential treatment on many items to India, while Pakistan was denied the facility.

According to officials, the matter would perhaps come up for discussion if talks between India and Pakistan resumed.

Pakistan, they said, was also trying to become a member of Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation and the Economic Cooperation Group consisting of India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. It was again India, which opposed Pakistan’s entry into the agreements, the said officials.

The agreements also offered maximum cooperation opportunities in trade for member countries, which are yet to be allowed to Pakistan.

The officials said that in the second meeting of the fourth round of South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement held in Katmandu in October last, the Indian government refused to exchange concessions in tariff on more items with Pakistan.

According to official statistics, the balance of trade had tilted in favour of India for the last many years due to sharp decline in exports from Pakistan and import of sugar, spices, feed, oil seeds, chemicals and machinery from India.

On the other hand, unofficial trade and smuggling between the two countries stood at around $1 billion annually. The goods were imported via Dubai, Hong Kong or Singapore.

Trade analysts were of the opinion that liberalization of trade between the two countries would benefit the poor section of the Pakistani population, who would get cheaper Indian products. And some products, which were not legally available in the country would become accessible for the consumers.

They, however, cautioned that it might harm production of those items which were not competitive vis-a-vis Indian products.