KARACHI, Jan 23: Indian Minister of State for Commerce Jai Ram Ramesh has admitted that non-tariff barriers (NTBs) imposed by New Delhi were not allowing trade between Saarc countries to flourish.

He said that he would recommend to his government that it should be liberalised, particularly with big neighbours like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The minister was speaking at a dinner hosted by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for a Pakistani delegation which attended a meeting of the Saarc Chamber of Commerce executive committee in New Delhi recently.

Amjad Rafi, a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), who accompanied the delegation, quoted the Indian minister as saying that NTBs should be removed.

Mr Ramesh’s admission that India’s NTBs were hindering the regional trade was not taken well by some Indian businessmen present on the occasion, Amjad Rafi told to Dawn.

The minister observed that even if India adopted a liberal trade policy with Pakistan the balance of trade would always be in its favour.

After the minister’s speech, during the question/answer session, Amjad Rafi said he drew the attention of participants towards a recent decision taken by the government of Pakistan allowing import of short staple cotton from India and said that this had become possible after the Pakistani private sector made hectic efforts to convince its government, but unfortunately Indian businessmen held different views on such issues.

Amjad Rafi said that it would be a win-win situation if both sides were given equal opportunities and did not adopt rigid policies.

He said he told the audience that Pakistani business community never indulged in politics and took decisions based on business priorities.

Citing an example, Mr Rafi said that the export of cement from Pakistan took six to eight months because of these non-trade barriers, despite its acute shortage in India. Even today it was being exported only by sea and a small quantity by train, he added.

In the absence of a truck stand on the Indian side, he said, cement exporters from Pakistan could not use land route whereas Pakistan had developed a stand which can accommodate around 100 trucks at a time.