‘Pakistan should adhere to SAFTA obligations’

Indian commerce secretary hopes trade talks will set stage for moving ahead.

ATTARI:

Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar has said that it does not matter whether Pakistan gives the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India or not, but it should at least adhere to trade obligations under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta) and operationalise them.

Khullar, who on Tuesday crossed over to Pakistan from the Attari land border for talks with his counterpart Zafar Mehmood on April 27-28 in Islamabad on trade-related issues, told The Times of India that Pakistan hesitated from giving MFN status to India.

He said that the meeting was unstructured and there was no fixed agenda. “We will discuss whatever we want to promote trade links between the two nations.”

He hoped for a positive outcome and said that once decisions were successfully implemented, they would set the foundation for moving ahead.

Laying stress on developing infrastructure for trade activities, he said once land trade increased, there would be no looking back. “It will happen gradually and not all of a sudden. I am going to Pakistan to get something constructive done and move forward,” he added.

He said Pakistan had to take equal steps with India in facilitating trade between the two nations.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2011.