Earlier, India and Pakistan had agreed to to expand movement of trucks and containers through Wagah-Attari border crossing to round-the-clock. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
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.
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This is the result of gun totting Nawaz Minister when entered his city with gangsters shooting in the air indiscriminatingly. These gangsters were his supporters. We have not heard of any action against those law braking ruffians!!
This must be very sad day for Showbaz and his elder brother.
Trade without a peace treaty and confidence building measures is a non starter!. The European Union has put the USA on notice to cease its NSA surveillance of European citizens before it will agree to a free trade agreement. Let the Bharata new Supremo take over the affairs of the Indian billions and demonstrate whether he seeks peace or war with its neighbours? It is in Pakistan interest to expand its trade with the European Union, which is currently the largest economy in the world..
Rex Minor
@ gp65: You always put forth sane,lucid arguments which are backed by facts and figures. But those seem to raise the level of the debate. It seems most of the comments are made on the spur of the moment thought and/or due to jealousy and hatred. Be that as it may, I find them very informative. regards
When Pakistan cannot be trusted with simple beneficial trade agreements where is the question of trusting them with Siachin or Kashmir? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ When it comes to Pakistan India must be very very careful . The divergence between actions and words is extreme in case of Pakistan.
Pakistan has to realize that it is in THEIR benefit to open up trade with India. Improving trade facilitation, market access and infrastructure help Pakistan more than it helps India. Why? Simply because India is a huge market that Pakistani exporters can tap into and gain from. Also, the decision of not giving India the MFN status is also very political, plus the agri, pharma and auto lobbies are pressurizing the current government not to give India the MFN status. What the Pakistani public don't know is that giving MFN status to India would benefit them, but not the already-rich businessmen people in Pakistan. Giving it hurts the businessmen, but benefits the people!
On a side note; I'm sure Mr. Anand Sharma would've made this visit to Pakistan if it were not election year. Afterall, the last time they had a meeting was last month. How do you expect operational changes (which have been stuck in bureaucratic red-tape) to be implemented in less than a month!?
In the end, politics wins.
My fellow Indians. Without knowing the facts behind the decision I don't understand why you believe it is a good move. Please have some sanity and comment or criticize when it is relevant. I am disappointed by some off the comments above. Peace.
who cares. Pakistan will never give MFN status to a country which occupying Pakistani land Occupied Kashmir.
NS is patting his back for achieving GSP+ from EU. To get this status, India had to issue a NOC to Pakistan to get it, Pakistan deceived India into promising giving MFN and India issued a MOC to Pakistan. Pakistan is yet to fulfill its promise. Good decision taken by Anand Sharma. IMHO, India must slide back to its status to post Mumbai attacks and disengage anything with Pakistan.
Re-iterating what I mentioned in another news article....."In India-Pakistan relationship we need to reduce 'sensitivity' and increase 'sensibility' " ..... The decision by Anand Sharma is fair one and not aimed at cornering Pakistan for not doing it's job. The same would have expected from Pakistan's commerce minister if India had been dragging feet on trade agreements. Do not understand the sentiments and unnecessary lack of sensitivity expressed by certain comments above
@yousafhaque:
Like the Free Trade Agreement and MFN status for India for example?
A well justified move.
At last some good decision...
Good decision by Mr. Anand Sharma
Well Mr.Sharma, we haven't move forward for the last 30 years. The only time we move, when prodded, is in the backward direction. Now leave it or take it!
In India we unfortunately have a very uncompromising,non-cooperative,unreliable,and obstinate neighbor.She has always fallen back on her promises,taking undue advantage of our overly goodwill gestures.
What are the list of items Pakistan exports to India? "Mineral fuel among others" is not a sufficient information for readers. Kindly do your home work before reporting.
It would be wise to report a new news piece with comparision of list of items India exports to Pakistan versus Pakistan's export list to India.
Good Decision by Mr. Anand Sharma. If he had gone without any commitments, then all the media and right wingers will start off propaganda like 'Failed Summit', 'Core issue have been left out' etc etc. This should be a precedent for future also that all summit level talks should culminate with signing of Concrete Agreements/Deals or else wait for a better time in near future.