Indian commerce minister cancels Pakistan visit

“I don’t want to land up there to find they have not moved forward on their commitments,” says Sharma.

Indian commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma has cancelled his scheduled visit to Pakistan even as a stalled trading route over the Line of Control resumed, The Hindu reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, Sharma has cancelled his visit to Lahore and Islamabad scheduled for this week on the ground that Pakistan has failed to operationalise the bilateral trade pact jointly agreed during the visit of Commerce and Textile Industry Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan in January.

He said on Wednesday that he would visit Pakistan only when it operationalises the trade related decision taken in New Delhi last month. “I don’t want to land up there to find they have not moved forward on their commitments,” said Sharma.

Earlier, India and Pakistan had agreed to to expand movement of trucks and containers through Wagah-Attari border crossing to round-the-clock. The two sides had also agreed to dismantle the negative list of 1,209 items and bringing down the sensitive list of items to 100 under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) over a period of five years.

India has already reduced its sensitive list of items to 614 and had agreed at the bilateral talks last month to further cut it to 100 in one year’s time. At present, only 137 items can be traded through Attari-Wagah border.

In 2012-13, India-Pakistan bilateral trade was $2.6 billion, up from $1.9 billion in the previous year. India’s main exports to Pakistan include sugar, man-made filaments and chemicals, while its imports comprise mineral fuels, among others.