NDMA status to India deferred, not shelved: Khurram Dastagir

Minister for commerce says status has been deferred since Pakistan did not want to favour any political party in India

PESHAWAR: Government deferred the decision to grant Non-Discriminatory Market Access (NDMA) status to India in order to avoid favoring and Indian political party ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Federal Minister for Commerce Engr. Khurram Dastagir said on Tuesday, insisting the programme had not been shelved.    

Briefly talking to the media in Peshawar after addressing a meeting of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI), he said, "We deferred this due to elections in India because we did not want to favour a single political party.”

Dastagir insisted that this programme has not been shelved.

He said the present government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, will promote export and trade relations with regional countries, as it economies should not be confined in the 21^st century.

“We will develop trade corridors with Afghanistan, central Asian republics, India, Iran and China,” he said, adding that the economies of China, India and Malaysia grew at a faster pace in the last 20 years.

Dastagir said the government firmly believes in the revival of the economy and maintained that regional cooperation is important for the economic future of the country.

In response to a question, Dastagir said the problems and difficulties being faced by the traders in K-P will be addressed on a priority basis. The problems related to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the ministry of finance and other ministries will be taken up with the respective ministries and departments.

By resolving the energy crises and extremism, Dastagir said, will automatically revive 50 per cent of industrial units in the country.

“The grant of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) status to Pakistan is also a big achievment of the prime minister. It will allow almost 20 per cent of Pakistani exports to enter the European Union (EU) market at zero tariff and 70 per cent at preferential rates,” he explained.