ISLAMABAD, May 29: Pakistan will not lose much in granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, it would rather result in boosting its own industrial productivity and competitiveness.

“There is no harm in liberalizing trade between the two countries,” Pakistan trade ambassador to WTO Dr Manzoor Ahmad told a seminar here on Thursday.

Pakistan, the envoy said, had already allowed trade of a number of items to India on concessional tariff under South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

He said all the past political governments had approved these agreements, which even allowed trade with India on zero duty on some items.

The seminar on “Granting of MFN status to India: Implications for Pakistan’s economy” was organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute.

The trade ambassador said: “If we are ready to have these agreements with India, then we should also consider the MFN status to India, which contrary to this would only allow trade on normal tariff applicable to all the countries without any discrimination.”

In reply to a question, he said a study was conduced in 1996, which suggested that liberalization of trade with India would have very less impact on Pakistan’s economy. The study further said that Pakistan would be the ultimate gainer in the long run.

He said that Indian economy was not big as compared to the United States, Japan, the European Union, etc., which were allowed to have normal trade with Pakistan on almost all items.

Dr Manzoor said in case Pakistan’s products were competitive with those of developed countries then it would not have much difficulty in competing with Indian products.

The ambassador said the decision of allowing import of raw materials of medicines from India had resulted in scaling down drug prices.

He further said that Pakistan imported raw materials of Pakistan Steel from Australia while the same could be imported from India on much cheaper prices to save foreign exchange.

The envoy said trade was constantly on the rise with India, but it was through a third country and “we are not getting direct benefits out of it.” He said Indian textile machinery and other products were imported through Singapore and Dubai to Pakistan.

He said under the WTO, Pakistan could take regulatory measures against the subsidized and cheaper imports to protect the local industry.

Dr Manzoor said that India was an active member of all regional trade agreements and had free trade agreements with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and now was going for the same with China and ASEAN. He said that it was better for Pakistan to open its economy for having more agreements with the regional countries, which in a long run would bear positive results.

Answering a question, he said Pakistan must keep its economic interest in view rather than keeping political differences while giving India the MFN status.

Dr Manzoor said that even without granting the MFN status, the Indian products were smuggled into Pakistani markets through the porous border between the two countries.