Pakistan is anxiously waiting for a suitable time to allow import of 340 items from India, official sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday. The sources said commerce ministry has finalised the list and the summary is ready for the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, and is expected to be considered in the next meeting.
"Pakistan is ready to expand positive list with India but we are waiting a suitable time to give a go ahead signal," the sources added. The sources said India had raised the issue at different forums that Pakistan was not implementing the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) agreement in letter and spirit and even demands expulsion of Islamabad from the organisation for non-compliance.
They added that the other members of Safta have also approached Pakistan asking for level playing field for all member countries.
However, Pakistan is of the view that since Pakistan did not accord Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, it would continue trade as per bilateral arrangements.
The sources said Pakistan had agreed at the Joint Study Group (JSG) meeting a few months ago to consider increase in importable items from India after consultations with stakeholders and fulfilment of legal requirements.
The commerce ministry had received a list of 286 items from India (271 through diplomatic channels and 15 at the JSG) whereas local business community had demanded permission to import 900 items.
After detailed comparison of both the lists and keeping in view the interests of the local industry, the ministry has identified 340 items, which it plans to include in the positive list.
The sources said preference has been given to those items on which duty is about five percent and are not being manufactured locally. They said that with the inclusion of 340 more items, the positive list would cross 1000 items, as the decision to import cement from India could be withdrawn at any time.
Presently, the trade volume between both the countries stands at less than $1 billion and it is very much in favour of New Delhi. During 2004-05 it was $746.396 million against $476 million in 2003-4.
The share of Pakistan's total exports to India was 0.8 percent whereas share of imports from India was 2.5 percent during 2003-04.
The sources said Pakistan's share of exports to India increased to 2.8 percent during July-May 2004-05, while share of imports from India jumped to 8.6 percent when compared to the same period of the corresponding year.
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