ISLAMABAD, Sept 12: Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said his government is willing to lift immediately “every single non-tariff barrier” to ease Pakistani exports to India.

“The government of India is committed to do this. This was even conveyed by our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to President General Pervez Musharraf when he visited India last,” the Indian commerce minister told Dawn in an interview on the sideline of the just-concluded G-20 ministerial conference in Bhurban.

President Musharraf had raised the issue of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) with the Indian prime minister, who committed to consider the issue and said “We stand by our commitment,” the minister said. “Trade must be one of the processes to enhance normalization,” he added.

Mr. Nath said trade between Pakistan and India is taking place through third countries, which hurt Pakistan. “It is natural that direct trade would be in Pakistan’s interests,” the Indian minister said. The annual turnover exceeds $1 billion.

“We must see that Pakistan is able to take full advantage of Indian strength. I believe that after various meetings, business community of both countries are also urging that we should have as much trade as possible,” he said.

The Indian commerce minister stressed that “we must look into how trade could be increased for uplifting the living standards of our peoples.”

He said that if the land route was opened to trade between the two countries, the basket of trade would increase tremendously.

India would like Pakistan to address those areas in which it has advantage. India would “truly respond,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said that the two secretaries’ level meetings had been held and both sides were now identifying products of interests to them. Pakistan could import only the products of interest to it. “India is not looking for any preferential treatment. We want to be treated at par with others,” the minister said.

It would be the competitiveness and quality, which would act as a prime factor in Pakistani market and Indian products would compete with products coming from other countries, he said.

Asked what products India has identified to import from Pakistan, he said: “textile, cotton, molasses, etc., could be imported from Pakistan.”

Questioned about the results of study groups on enhancing and facilitating bilateral trade, the Indian minister said that it would be finalized in the next three months.

He said Pakistan was very good in cotton production. “Why not India should buy cotton from Pakistan? We have a great yarn capacity, why not we should export it to Pakistan?” he added.

Replying to another question, he said, “We must try to see that how we can help each other? How can we improve the economic prosperity of the people of the two countries?”

The business communities of both countries had been demanding greater trade interaction, he said adding it was now for our two governments to respond to it.

Replying to a question, he said that he had brought to the notice of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in his meeting that India was looking forward to the result of the study groups at the secretary level.

When asked about a demand for increasing items in the positive list, the minister said “We are flexible on it. We want (trade) only according to the strength of each country.”

To another question, he said that India has no specific demand. “We could even import hydel power from Pakistan”, he said.