Pak agrees granting ‘most favoured nation’ status to India would spur trade relations
April 29th, 2011 - 5:28 pm ICT by ANIIslamabad, April 29(ANI): Pakistan has agreed that granting the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India would spur the expansion of their bilateral trade relations.
At the 5th round of Indo-Pak talks on Commercial and Economic Co-operation held on April 27-28 in Islamabad, both sides agreed that increase in trade and economic engagement would help not only in the mutual quest for national development, but also contribute to building trust between the two countries.
Pakistan recognized that grant of MFN status to India would help in expanding the bilateral trade relations.
Both sides also agreed to remove the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and all other restrictive practices that hamper bilateral trade.
It was decided at the meeting to establish a Working Group (WG) specifically dedicated to address and resolve clearly identified sector-specific barriers to trade. The WG would comprise technical experts and representatives of regulatory bodies directly concerned with the clearly identified barriers. The first meeting of the WG shall be held by September 2011.
Both sides agreed to expand trade through the Wagah-Attari border by inter-alia increasing trading hours taking advantage of the new infrastructure, expeditious clearance of cargo and facilitating movement of large vehicles and containerised traffic.
It was also agreed that Pakistan would remove its present restrictions on trade by land route as soon as the infrastructure to facilitate mutual trade is completed, and the timeline for this purpose would be before October.
It was decided to undertake a new initiative to enable trade of electricity between both countries, and a group of experts from both sides would examine feasibility, scope and modalities of such trading.
Both sides also agreed to work out how to initiate and substantially expand trade in all types of petroleum products, and a new initiative to promote bilateral trade in Bt. cotton seeds was also identified.
Both sides expressed the intent to explore the possibility of entering into a mutually agreed preferential trade arrangement (PTA) to further promote bilateral trade by extending tariff concessions on products of export interest to both countries.
Both sides also agreed that facilitating the grant of Business Visas was essential to bilateral expansion of trade. (ANI)
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Tags: april 29, bilateral trade relations, building trust, economic engagement, feasibility, first meeting, hamper, indo, modalities, most favoured nation, mutual quest, nation status, ntbs, petroleum products, regulatory bodies, restrictive practices, tariff barriers, technical experts, timeline, working group