New Delhi is yet to honour its commitment regarding removal of non-tariff barriers to facilitate trade of 25 Pakistani items even after passage of about 9 months, official sources told Business Recorder, here on Thursday.
"India had expressed its willingness to facilitate import of 'Pakistan-wished' 25 items and remove non-tariff barriers without seeking Most Favoured Nation status, and transit facility for Afghanistan," the sources added.
The commerce ministry had prepared the list of items after threadbare consultations with all the stakeholders and dispatched it to India. The tariff lines which had been made part of the list are: fruits (kinnow, mango, lime and dates), milk, marble, onyx and its by-products, packed drinking water, cotton yarn, cotton and blended fabrics, cotton bed linen, home textiles, trousers, T-shirts, surgical instruments, electric fans, PVC insulated cables, electric bulbs, mild steel tubes/pipes, steel gas cylinder (LPG), plastic filling bottles, circuit breakers, tanned leather and its products, footwear including Peshawari Chappal, furniture (all types), cutlery, knives, cutting blades, scissors and razor blades, hair clippers, choppers, sports goods, transformers, electricity meters and switch gears.
The sources said that though the export of cement to India has increased, further measures are needed to facilitate exports through land route. The sources said that the issue would be taken up at a meeting of Joint Study Group expected to be held in July or August this year as New Delhi has not fulfilled the longstanding commitment of removal of non-tariff barriers.
Pakistan was expecting that it would be able to fetch $200-300 million more during the current fiscal year through cement export to India but the existing hurdles might block the exports from going to wishful level.
Direct trade between India and Pakistan is only about $300 million, which has improved a little bit compared to their combined $200 billion trade with the rest of the world. The sources said that India has also constituted a committee in its commerce ministry that would suggest measures to facilitate Pakistan's exports to India.
Analysts say that there was lack of infrastructure at the border, which is necessary for improving bilateral trade. However, both sides agreed that Pakistan and India would complete the infrastructure on their ends to facilitate transportation of goods through land route.
When contacted, Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah confirmed that a list of wished items has been dispatched to New Delhi for facilitation but no intimation has been received as yet.
Shah believes that his Indian counterpart would offer his services to make import of some items from Pakistan easy. Pakistan would take up the issue at the composite dialogue, expected to be held in June or July between the foreign ministers of the both the countries as Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an interview that trade between Pakistan and India would be enhanced.
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