India will host the first-ever trade fair showcasing goods made by old foe Pakistan at an exhibition in the capital in March, a report said on Sunday.
The March 3-11 "Made in Pakistan" fair is aimed at allaying concerns that a South Asian free trade zone would lead to Indian goods swamping Pakistani markets, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
In January, the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) agreed to create a free trade area embracing Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"There's an apprehension in the minds of our Pakistani counterparts that Indian goods would flood their markets," said Y.K. Modi, one of the fair's organisers, adding: "This exhibition is to make them comfortable and confident."
The fair will have 100 stalls exhibiting Pakistani handicrafts, fashion garments, melamine products, glassware, pharmaceutical and consumer goods.
Modi said it would help "create a niche market for Pakistani products in India, but goods would have to be high quality and priced competitively "because there's stiff competition in the domestic market."
The exhibition will be preceded by a conference on India-Pakistan economic ties on March 2, expected to draw 150 Pakistani businessmen.
It is aimed at helping smooth implementation of the free trade area which will cover a region that is home to 1.4 billion people, said Modi, adding: "With the launch of the free trade zone, bilateral trade could easily touch anywhere between two to five billion dollars."
He said trade between India and Pakistan - whose hostility stems from their more than half-century-old dispute over the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir - is valued at a scant 206 million dollars annually.
Pakistan's imports from India in the year ended March 2001 totalled 166 million dollars while India's imports from Pakistan stood at 60 million dollars, latest figures show.
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