Indo-Pak ties: ‘Steps being taken to boost trade’

Joint working groups have been set up for customs cooperation, trade in electricity and petroleum products.


Ppi August 10, 2011

NEW DEHLI:


Pakistan has recognised that the grant of Most Favoured Nation status to India would help in expanding bilateral trade relations and agreed to place in its Positive List by October, 2011, said Indian State Minister for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya M Scindia on Wednesday, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, India’s upper house of parliament.


Scindia said bilateral trade and commerce talks were held between the Commerce Secretaries of India and Pakistan on 27-28 April in Islamabad, and the two sides agreed to improve trade infrastructure and expand trade through the Attari-Wagha land route. It was agreed to set up a working group to address the identified sector-specific barriers to trade. Both sides agreed to undertake new initiatives to enable trade in electricity and cotton seeds and also to expand trade in petroleum products, he said. He also said that it was agreed that cooperation in the technology sector would be encouraged through private partnerships. Both sides agreed to facilitate the issuance of business visas to encourage the expansion of trade, he added.

Joint working groups have been set up for customs cooperation, trade in electricity and petroleum products.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11th, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

TANOLI. | 12 years ago | Reply

@ Suresh Lol.,..

Suresh P Singh | 12 years ago | Reply

A very good initiative indeed! Granting of Most Favoured Nation status to India would definitely help in expanding bilateral trade. It will also help in building and raising the level of confidence -- very critical -- between the two countries. It is also heartening to note that the two countries have shown interests to set up a working group to address (the identified sector-specific) barriers to trade. For various region-specific issues -- poverty, hunder, malnutrition, unemployment, terrorism --the region is already placed adversely on the world map. It is also a fact that the region has great potential and there is scope for improving the situation through cooperation. And, therefore, the South Asia region is in greater need for cooperation than any other regions in the world.

Let us hope the initiative would lead to improvement in political and economic relations between the two countries, and would pave way for more initiatives. The efforts, however, need to be sincere and history must be put in its place.

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