ISLAMABAD, Jan 20: The Pakistan-India committee of experts, led by the commerce secretaries of the two countries, will meet on Feb 22, sources told Dawn on Thursday.

The two-day meeting will be held in New Delhi. The dates for the meeting were confirmed through diplomatic channels on Tuesday, the sources said.

They maintained that Pakistan's formal notification to the World Bank for the appointment of an expert to settle the Baglihar dam dispute would not affect the meeting. It will be the first meeting between the two countries after the breakdown of talks on the Baglihar issue earlier this month.

This will be the first round of talks between the two countries on trade matters at the experts' level. The two delegations would include representatives of the ministries of trade and commerce, industries and foreign affairs, customs, tariff commissions and business communities, the sources said.

The decision to form the group was taken when the foreign secretaries of the two countries met in Delhi in September last year. Initially, it was decided that the group would be presided over by the commerce joint secretaries but subsequently the two sides agreed to upgrade it to the secretary level.

The key issue at the forthcoming meeting would be the tariff regime. A recent World Bank report declared that India's tariff structure was one of the highest in the world.

This was also pointed out by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to the Indian business community when it raised the issue of giving India the most-favoured nation status during his visit to Delhi in November 2004.

Other talking points for the meeting would include the MFN status, sale of diesel to Pakistan, trade barriers, duty concessions and agricultural imports, the sources said. A joint study currently being conducted on trade issues by specialists of the two countries is also likely to figure in the discussions.