Pakistan Institute of Trade and Development (PITAD), an arm of Commerce Ministry, has reportedly recommended to the government that trade liberalisation with India should be linked to progress on Siachen, Sir Creek and water issues, sources close to Commerce Minister told Business Recorder. There are many unresolved disputes between India and Pakistan which can be resolved with a little bit of flexibility and political will, sources added.
Commerce Minister, Khurram Dastgir, like his predecessor, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, focused on getting approval from the federal cabinet to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status - renamed as Non-Discriminatory Market Access (NDMA) - but forces which blocked any advancement on this issue during the PPP government's tenure have also reportedly forced the incumbent government not to grant NDMA status to New Delhi. USAID spent millions of dollars on studies, seminars and hiring consultants to advance the cause of granting NDMA status to India but received a setback when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cancelled the cabinet meeting convened to approve NDMA status for India.
Analysts argue that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's presence in the oath-taking ceremony of Narindra Modi, a hardliner, gave some hope to New Delhi that NDMA status is not far away from reality. As a follow up, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Basit Ali, met with Commerce Minister in Islamabad for further deliberations on trade-related issues that came under discussion between the two Prime Ministers.
Analysts, however, maintain that the recent political developments and the growing gulf between the government and the security establishment has marred Indian hopes for the time being. The sources said, PITAD has conducted a detailed study on merits and de-merits of trade between Pakistan and India. Presently, trade between Pakistan and India is around $2-3 billion per annum as a number of goods are traded through Dubai. The study has recommended that the decision to grant NDMA status should be taken while taking into account the concerns of all the stakeholders and doing a complete SWOT analysis by the Government of Pakistan (GoP). The research studies conducted by different national and international organisations have an enormous reserve of recommendations for improving trade relations between Pakistan and India.
However, PITAD argued that in order to extract maximum benefit out of granting NDMA status to India, Pakistan should consider the following policy recommendations: (i) since India is a bigger economy, it should give trade preference to Pakistan; (ii) Consignments from Pakistan reaching India should be cleared and released in one working day; (iii) big shopping malls of India should have dedicated shops only for Pakistani products; (iv) all states of India will have warehouses for distribution and storage of Pakistani goods; (v) Pakistani and Indian trade-related institutions should cooperate and collaborate on trade related issues. Joint trade-related analysis on a six-monthly basis should be carried out for further recommendations; (vi) Pakistan will have the right to NDMA status if agreed issues are not resolved in decided timeframe; (vii) free of cost warehousing and cold storage be provided by the government on both sides of the border for agricultural and perishable items; (viii) intermediate goods and raw materials should be removed from Pakistan's negative list for India; (ix) visa policy for Pakistan should be revised and improved and Pakistani businessmen should be given visa facility on arrival; (x) a dedicated window for Pakistani goods on Indian ports for processing and clearance;(xi) a proper mechanism should be installed for resolving bilateral trade issues; (xii) Pakistani banks and financial institutions should be allowed to open branches in India; (xiii) India must bring down bar of its NTBs in general and Pakistan-specific bias in particular; (xiv) talks on trade liberalisation can also be linked with revival of Pakistan and India sports and cultural relations especially cricket and hockey on home grounds; and (xix) Pakistan should grant NDMA only if the above recommendations are agreed by India. At the same time, Pakistan should have the right to withdraw the MFN status if these recommendations are violated.
Comments
Comments are closed.