Indo-Pak ties: Bilateral trade termed passageway to peace

Speakers underscore need to resolve non-tariff barriers among Saarc countries.

Experts at a roundtable on Tuesday, identified trade as an instrument of peace and emphasised on South Asian nations to work towards enhancing economic integration, said a press release.

Titled “Public-Private Dialogue on Non-Tariff Barriers in South Asia”, the discussion was organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

The participants included members of business community, chambers of commerce and associations, members of consumer rights organisations and representatives of government departments and ministries.

SDPI Deputy Executive Director Dr Vaqar Ahmed started the proceedings while Ministry of Commerce Joint Secretary Roubina Ather and Iqbal Taabish from SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry presented opening remarks. The participants pointed out that South Asian regional integration was held hostage by India and Pakistan by not moving forward on crucial bilateral issues.

It was observed that bilateral trade among the states was ranked extremely low in priorities of South Asian governments including Pakistan. Referring to positive examples, they cited the case of East Africa where countries have established separate ministries of Regional Integration.

They also highlighted that much work had already been done to identify non-tariff barriers as well as other trade restrictive measures. The need of hour is to move forward and devise ways and means to resolve these non-tariff barriers so that intra-regional trade in South Asia can be increased, said a participant.

Another issue discussed at the meeting was unavailability of updated data regarding non-tariff barriers in the countries.

The speakers pointed towards strengthening the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industries as well as local chambers which up till now were ineffective in giving sound policy recommendations mainly because of sheer lack of capacity in analysing trade issues. The meeting concluded with pinning high hopes on newly-established Joint India Pakistan Business Council. The participants termed other South Asian countries as equally important and urged the need for further research on trade with these countries as well.

They also demanded to reflect consumer voices in South Asian economic discourse.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2013.