ISLAMABAD: After a gap of two years, Pakistan and India have decided to hold talks next month at technical level for expansion and removal of hindrances for increasing bilateral trade between them.
A senior official told Dawn on Thursday that the Indian commerce secretary will visit Pakistan towards the end of April to resume talks on trade issues that remained stalled after the Mumbai terrorist attacks.When contacted Secretary Commerce Zaffar Mehmood confirmed that his Indian counterpart would visit Pakistan. However, he said he did not know about the exact dates of the visit. “Even we have not finalised the agenda of the meeting”, the secretary said.
Pakistan, according to the official, had already set a stage for resumption of talks among other issues, especially on trade as the government unilaterally expanded positive list last month with India after a break of more than two years.
“This will provide a solid base for full-fledge resumption of the composite dialogue that was effectively used by New Delhi in seeking maximum market access for Indian products in Pakistani market,” official commented.
The proposed meeting of the interior secretaries of the two countries next week in New Delhi will also pave the way for trade talks.
These two highest level talks will set a stage for a full-fledge meeting on all issues at the foreign ministers level expected to be held in July.
The expansion of trade between the two countries came in the backdrop of the composite dialogue launched in 2004, while no progress has been made in the thorny issues of Kashmir, water etc, an analyst observed.
A trade source said that Pakistan might raise the issue of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on the plea that these barriers restrict export of Pakistani essential commodities to the highly protected Indian market.
Pakistan had already submitted a long list of NTBs to India for consideration, which it believed that due to these NTBs and para-tariffs Pakistani products could not enter the Indian market.
The statistics showed that importable items from India enhanced to less than $2 billion in a year, while Pakistan's exports still hovering between $400 million to $600 million reflecting the trade was highly tilted in favour of India.
A customs officer said that until these NTBs are removed reductions in customs duties will not serve any purpose to increase the regional trade.
Pakistan is trading with India through a positive list, a list of products importable from India.
The positive list included 42 items for trading in the year 1986, which was expanded to 1,145 items in the year 2011 showing that Pakistan has diverted its global trade toward India in past few years.
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