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Pak-India trade talks from Wednesday

Dunya News

The formal Trade Minister-level talks between India and Pakistan would formally begin on Wednesday.

Trade Minister Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Fahim who has reached in India will hold a number of sessions, including business talks with his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma on Wednesday.These talks are a follow-up to the Secretary-level talks held in Islamabad in April this year. Fahim is accompanied by a large delegation comprising the business community of Pakistan, including representatives of various chambers of commerce in Pakistan. This is the first meeting between the Trade and Commerce Ministers of the two countries after a three-year gap.Pakistan has already expressed its desire to “positively” consider granting Most Favoured nation (MFN) status to India.Pakistan has also announced its intention to move over from the positive list to negative list on trade with India. Currently, Pakistan has given access to 1,940 product lines on its positive list and has 12,000 on the negative list. But half of the items on the positive list are not exported by India or it imports these items. Pakistan is likely to take up the issue of end to non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that prevent many of its goods from entering India. With Pakistan blocking Indian imports by the positive list, India has so far maintained that the NTBs Pakistan claims are not country-specific.
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