NEW DELHI: Ahead of Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim’s four-day visit to New Delhi beginning on September 26, New Delhi is likely to lift its veto on the European Union (EU) duty waiver for Pakistani cotton exports.
Sources have told The Indian Express that the concession is likely to be conveyed formally by Indian Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma to his Pakistani counterpart.
They said that it would be one of the “big-ticket concessions” from the Indian side.
India, along with Bangladesh and Turkey, had raised objections at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to the EU’s proposal to allow duty-free access to 75 products from Pakistan. It was an aid-linked package aimed at recovery of Pakistan’s cotton industry affected by the floods last year. Floods have affected Pakistan’s cotton crops this year as well.
The access to European countries will benefit Pakistan’s cotton industry by about $200 million without affecting India’s cotton exporters in a “substantial manner,” one source said.
The package will now be placed for approval before the member-states and the European parliament in the next few days, and will come into effect only if WTO partners grant a waiver.
The list of 75 products includes dried mushrooms, truffles, cotton yarn, woven cotton fabrics and overcoats for men and boys.
The sources said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani raised this issue with his Indian counterpart in April when they met on the sidelines of an India-Pakistan World Cup cricket match in Mohali.
The commerce minister would be leading a high level delegation of businessmen from various chambers of commerce to explore business and trade opportunities between the two countries.
The visit has been arranged by the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan with an aim to boost trade between the two counties that will also help confidence building among the two nations.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 15th, 2011.
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Appreciate this gesture from India which will help flood, terrorism, corruption and mullah ravaged Pakistan.