Trade ties

The progress may be slow, but at least it is there. Like the fable involving a race between a rabbit and a hare, the contest may eventually be won by moving on slowly but steadily. After two days of fairly intense trade talks between the commerce secretaries of India and Pakistan, it has been agreed that Pakistan will eventually grant most-favoured nation trading status to India. Perhaps, more importantly, there has been agreement that work will begin towards removing the hurdles that impede trade and have acted as roadblocks, preventing items to move across the border. The ‘positive list’ maintained by Pakistan, as part of a peculiar arrangement that permits only 1,946 items to be imported from India, is to be abolished by Islamabad by October. It is to be replaced with a ‘negative list’ that bars fewer items from being exported by India to Pakistan. A similar list maintained by India will also be done away with, and working groups are to be set up to look into other issues.

This is good news. Only minor niggles remain, such as India’s refusal to discuss the lifting of restrictions on trade with Pakistan by the EU and Islamabad’s similar reluctance to discuss trade by India with Afghanistan through Pakistani territory. These will take time to be sorted out. But any progress is good and a great deal has come out of the talks. The value of discussion cannot be undermined. The real dangers come when it stops all together. Stepped up trade between India and Pakistan is the only logical way to move forward. The geographical proximity of the two countries makes it practical and the potential benefits are immense — it is grossly unfair to deprive people of these. The realisation that we need to move forward in this area has been delayed for far too long. But the steps being taken now to improve matters are positive. We must hope they culminate, as the two trade secretaries have envisaged, in increased trade and an unwinding of the red tapism that Pakistan has said stands in the way of progress. There is really not much choice but to move forward, given the desperate need to bolster trade and help both countries boost their economies.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2011.