ISLAMABAD, Dec 24: The government has constituted study groups to identify hidden tariff and non-tariff barriers in the Indian import regime that restricted the flow of Pakistani exportable products into that country , a senior official told Dawn on Friday.

The commerce ministry has also sought information from all chambers of commerce and industry, trade associations and business groups in this regard before starting the second round of negotiation on bilateral trade with India.

Talking to Dawn, Secretary Commerce Tasleem Noorani said that the study group would soon visit India to interact with the relevant people to identify the barriers, which have restricted the entry of Pakistani products.

After the compilation and research work, he said these barriers, both tariff and non-tariff, would be discussed with the Indian authorities. He said that despite the MFN status, India has granted to Pakistan, exports to that country could not register any tangible growth.

Regarding the new European Union GSP scheme, the secretary said that Pakistan would hopefully get a favourable market access under the new scheme. He said Pakistan would also continue talks with EU member countries for increasing the trade.

When asked about his China visit, Mr Noorani said that the free trade agreement (FTA) would be finalized with China within the next six months. Under the preferential trading arrangement (PTA), China would give deeper concession to Pakistan which would increase the trade volume, he added.

According to a report, a copy of which was made available to Dawn, the peak rate of customs in India was around 70 per cent. Some agriculture items were subject to much higher customs duty like 80 per cent to 150 per cent on sugar.

Furthermore, certain items are included in the ban list. The other duties included additional customs duties, which is levied on all articles imported in India equivalent to the excise duty; special duty on specific articles; special additional duty is levied on all articles and the rates varies for various items; additional surcharges levied from time to time and its rates varies for different items.

Similarly, a 2 per cent education cess has been imposed on all imports in the 2004 budget. After landing, imports are also subject to taxes by the Indian states - octroi, local sales tax, local government sales tax and toll tax.

The non-tariff barriers include requirement of political, security clearance; sampling, customs inspection; requirement of technical, standard certification, labelling and marking rules; packaging rules, specification; import license; opening of LC; sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures; implementation of IPR convention and issue of subsidy.