Expressing displeasure over government's decision to delay granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, exporters say that the move will damage the image of the country abroad. Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) should have convinced those stakeholders having reservations over opening of trade with India.
"We are unable to export to India only because of the restrictions while things are coming from the neighbouring country," said Ziad Bashir, Director Gul Ahmed Textile Ltd while talking to Business Recorder. "It is unrealistic approach to avoid a big market in neighbour with stronger currency," he said adding that products like cotton, yarn and others from India were coming into Pakistan.
Expressing his displeasure over the delay in opening of trade, Ziad said "I could not understand the rational behind delay in normalisation of trade process." According to him, the MoC and TDAP should have talked to growers or others sectors having concerns about opening trade with India before making commitments with the neighbouring country.
There are safeguarding measures/process to save a sector/industry even after normalization of trade. In a statement, S.M Muneer, President Indo Pak-CCI said, "Pakistan should honour its commitment of granting MFN to India. The delay in the instant matter will jeopardise the process of liberalisation of trade between the two neighbours."
According to him, MFN status is an obligation under World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the country should grant the status to Delhi for enhancement of bilateral trade. The strong economic ties between the two countries were based on reciprocal basis with consideration and implementation from both sides.
India is a big market of over 1.2 billion people which needs to be tapped by aggressive marketing strategies and interactions. The impact of trade liberalisation is expected to be about $6 billion against the existing bilateral trade volume of $2.6 billion. An exporter from fruit/vegetable sector said that he was surprised to hear about news of delaying the MFN process once it was decided to be granted by the end of this year. Exporters of this sector have already informed MoC about their willingness to compete with Indian exporters in fruit/vegetable sector.
It is worth mentioning here Pakistan had earlier said it would phase out the negative list regime by December 31, paving the way for MFN status to India to be granted by the New Year. The negative list allows commerce in all but 1209 items. Islamabad had earlier missed another deadline for removing restrictions on trade through the land route before end of October, 2012.
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