Roundtable discussion: Pak-India trade catalyst for building peace, says speakers

ISLAMABAD:

Bilateral trade could be a catalyst for peace between Pakistan and India, with economic growth and reduced poverty as additional benefits. This was the crux of a roundtable discussion on “India Pakistan Trade: Post Conflict Scenario” which was organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday.

Mubarak Zeb Khan, a journalist, said both India and Pakistan traded relatively freely and in huge amounts during the early years after partition, but later political tensions undermined the trade patterns.

Khan blamed business pressure groups for the lack of trade between the neighbouring countries. “Specific business lobbies, particularly those in the automobile, textile and pharmaceutical industries were against free trade with India,” he said.

Mohsin Khalid, former president of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and director of Ittehad Steel, termed current bilateral trade between India and Pakistan “negligible”.

Khalid said poor infrastructure, exorbirtant container transportation and the dismal security situation that causes needless delays are not helping bilateral trade either.

“When infrastructure is improved and the cost of doing business with India decreases, the businesses will automatically start trading with each other and there will be no need for agreements on paper,” he said.



Ejaz Haider, an advisor at the SDPI, cited the examples of China-Taiwan and China-Japan to show that trade between countries is usually unaffected by the relations between the countries.

Former ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi seconded Haider. He said China set a long-term goal to increase middle class income and all state policies were oriented toward achievement of this goal.

“No matter what relations China had with foreign nations, this long-term goal was never compromised,” Qazi said. He said there was a similar need of long-term policy planning in Pakistan.

Haider said the Pak-India trade has been taking place through informal channels and it should be brought into the formal channel.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2013.