Thaindian News

Islamabad, Oct 5 (IANS) Pakistan has started the process to move from “positive list” to “negative list” trade regime with India, that would significantly increase the number of goods being traded between the two neighbours.

Pakistan’s commerce ministry Wednesday started consultation with stakeholders’ for preparing the negative list and asked all industry chambers to give their views by Oct 15, an official statement said.

“All the stakeholders are requested to furnish their recommendations along with justification for inclusion of the importable items from India in negative list,” the commerce ministry statement said.

The ministry has asked all industry chambers and sectoral trade associations to identify items that can be included in the negative list.

Commerce secretaries of India and Pakistan during a meeting in April here had agreed in principle to move from the positive list trade regime to negative list trade regime.

Pakistan maintains a “positive list” of 1,945 items which are allowed to be imported from India. Under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Pakistan operates a sensitive list (negative list) of 1,169 items.

Commerce Minister Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Fahim recently said his government was committed to identifying a short negative list of goods that would not be imported from India.

Fahim, who was on a five-day visit to India recently, held talks with his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma and set a target to increase trade to $6 billion in three years from the current level of $2.7 billion.