Pakistan and India should remove trade barriers and complement each other to tape bilateral trade potential of more than three billion dollars through direct trade for benefit of both the peoples.
Presently, bilateral trade between the two neighbouring countries stood at 600 million dollars while the estimated informal trade volume in 2004-05 figured two billion dollars, which involved goods like chemicals, industrial machinery, cement, tyres, tea, medicine, video tapes, cosmetics and viscose fibre.
These goods found their way through third markets such as Dubai and Singapore.
The trade through other countries harm interest of both the countries ie increasing the cost of production and slashing the revenue of exporters as well as increasing price for consumers.
This was noted in a meeting between the visiting trade delegation from Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC), Mumbai and members of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) here at Federation House on Friday.
Led by President IMC, Rajesh Gordhandas Kapadia, the IMC delegation included Indian women entrepreneurs.
FPCCI President Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed led Pakistani side. Prominent from Pakistani business community were FPCCI Vice President Akbar Abdullah, FPCCI ex-chief, Iftikhar Malik, FPCC1 Managing Committee member, Dr Mushtaq Noorwala, Co-chairperson, FPCCI Women Entrepreneurs Forum, Ms Mehreen Illahi.
The meeting decided that Indian and Pakistani businessmen would have to push their governments to remove trade barriers at the earliest leading to availability of equal level playing fields for business communities of both the countries.