LAHORE: Federal Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim on Tuesday said India was ready to support Pakistan in getting final approval of World Trade Organisation (WTO) regarding Pakistani products' access to European markets.
Pakistan and India also agreed to issue multiple visas to each other's businessmen for a year to expand bilateral trade, said the minister while talking to the media after inaugurating a carpet exhibition at a local hotel.
The minister said that on the invitation of his Indian counterpart, he had recently headed a 75-member delegation comprising leading businessmen of the country to India. “It was the first visit by a Pakistani commerce minister to India in last 35 years,” he said, adding, the visit proved instrumental in removing reservations and bottlenecks in the two-way trade between the neighbouring countries.
Mr Fahim, earlier, said that New Delhi was obstructing the WTO approval for Pakistan’s exports to Europe, however, during the visit, the Indian side agreed to support Pakistan on the issue. Indian Commerce Minister also directed India's ambassador to Geneva to do homework in this regard, Mr Fahim added.
He said both sides had also decided to issue multiple visas to each other's businessmen/traders for one year, and it would be extendable. “This initiative, I think, will definitely help build traders' mutual confidence and also expand the bilateral trade volume,” he added.
Currently, the Pak-India trade volume stands at over $ 2 million, the commerce ministers, however, vowed to scale up this figure up to $ 6 billion in the next three years.
The business community's exchange visits would prove to be a catalyst in increasing the two-trade volume, he said.
To a question, he said Pakistan has no objection on MFN (Most Favourite Nation) status to India and “We will definitely carry it on, however, we want to proceed step by step.”
Amin Fahim said commerce Secretaries’ meeting of the two countries would be held in New Delhi next month, where technical aspects of these matters would be finalised.
To another question, the minister made it clear that the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) agreement was between Pakistan and Afghanistan only, adding, under this pact, Islamabad has the advantage of an easy passage to Central Asian countries through
Afghanistan.
Earlier, addressing the carpet exhibition's inaugural ceremony, the minister hailed the role of the carpet industry and said, “The industry is playing a vital role in Pakistan's image building in the world.”
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