June 10, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1424

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NEW DELHI, June 9: India’s foreign ministry has cleared the visit of a delegation of Pakistani businessmen, officials said Monday.

The 40-member delegation will be led by Ilyas Ahmed Bilour, president of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Riaz Ahmed Tata, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

They will meet their Indian counterparts in New Delhi on June 28 and 29, a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry statement said.

The discussions will centre around the low volume of trade as well as infrastructural and policy bottlenecks hampering movement of goods, capital and people between the two countries.

Indian businessmen are likely to raise the issue of Pakistan granting most favoured nation status to India, which would allow them to export almost all items at low rates of import duties.

Currently Pakistan allows imports of only 610 items from India and these are subject to high tariffs, which encourages smuggling. India has granted most favoured nation status to Pakistan which means imports are treated the same as goods from any other country.

Bilateral trade between India and Pakistan is estimated at around 1.5 billion dollars annually, less than one per cent of their global trade.—AFP