PESHAWAR, April 12: The Indian high commissioner to Pakistan, Mr Shiv Shankar Menon on Monday said that the most favoured nation (MFN) status and South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta) agreement can be vital means to raise the volume of trade between India and Pakistan.
"MFN status is a mean, Safta can be another, that is not the problem," said Mr. Menon, adding that " the problem is knowing each other's economy." In a meeting with the members of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), at the Chambers House, here on Monday, Mr Menon said that his government was keen in trading with Pakistan for mutual benefit.
Quoting Indian chambers' figures, he said that the volume of indirect trade between the two sides stood at between $1 billion and $2 billion per annum and the same could touch the $6 billion mark in a year if the two sides agreed to direct trade.
Replying to apprehensions expressed by some of the SCCI members viz-a-viz sensitive list under the Safta, he said that "don't let fear guide this (Safta) look at the sensitive list once where we both stand to benefit."
"We don't need to be so worried as we are already trading with other bigger economies," said the Indian high commissioner, adding that "why can't Pakistan and India sell to each other."
He expressed the hope that establishment of trade ties between India and Pakistan under the recently undertaken peace process would help both the economies and help both the sides to come close to each other.
"I am keen to develop and strengthen trust through trade ties," said Mr Menon. India, he maintained, had attached extra significance to Pakistan, particularly, the Sarhad chamber because of its geographic location being close to the big markets of Central Asian Region (CAR) and Afghanistan.
He said that his government was very flexible and would do the needful to facilitate Pakistani exporters to do business with their counterparts in India. Citing the example of his government's decision to establish trade linkages with China, he said that both the countries benefited to a greater extent.
"Initially, Indian businessmen were skeptical about the move but the move went well as the balance of trade is in India's favour," said Mr Menon, adding that India's direct trade with China stood at $7.5 billion last year and combined with Hong Kong it stood at $12 billion in the same year."
Trade linkages between India and Pakistan would equally benefit the business communities and governments of both the countries, he maintained. "You have cotton, you spun it and then take it to across the border for weaving, in this way, value addition, would benefit both the countries," said Mr. Menon.
Terming the recently organized exhibition of 'made in Pakistan' in India as a big success, he said that the amount of interest elicited by the expo by the business circles clearly reflected that Pakistan had so much to offer to Indian markets.
Pakistani products, he maintained, stood greater chances to penetrate in the Indian markets and some of them might counter little competition but the only thing the business community of Pakistan would need to do was to know the changing trends and demand in markets of India.
"Come to India and know its markets," he asked the businessmen assuring them that his staff would facilitate them to explore business opportunities in India. He said that businessmen of both the countries needed to know each other's economies to explore business opportunities, adding that it was easy to feel the change in Indian market and the structural change in demand taking place there.
"It is a big market with a big local capacity in consumer goods," said Mr Menon, adding that "two million mobile phones are bought every month as increase in demand is happening out side metro as demand for small sachet packs of shampoo are high in rural areas."
He did not agree with a questioner that the government of India was protecting its industrial sector with protected import regime. "I don't think that ours is a closed market any longer," he said.
Agreeing that the average tariff rate in India was higher than Pakistan, he said that the government of India was eying to bring down the rate to the level of ASEAN, which would be less than the level being maintained presently by Pakistan.
The rest of the Word, he continued, was selling to India which was also evident from the fact that India's imports rose to 20 per cent last year. "That does not suggest that we have protected import regime," he added.
