IPCCI calls for early granting of MFN status to India
03 January, 2013
KARACHI: Pakistan should honour its commitment in granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, said S M Muneer President Indo-Pak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
KARACHI: Pakistan should honour its commitment in granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, said S M Muneer President Indo-Pak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Pakistan announced in October 2011 that it would grant MFN status to India from January 1, 2013 and the delay in the matter would jeopardise the process of liberalisation of trade between the two countries.
Muneer said the trade between Pakistan and India was about $2.6 billion in 2011 while the informal or third country trade between the two countries was more than $3 billion.
According to an estimate the impact of trade liberalisation would be of about $6 billion of bilateral trade. India had granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.
Granting the MFN status to India and dismantling the negative list are important for bilateral trade because India in return will bring down its SAFTA sensitive list to 100 tariff lines at six digit level by April 2013, he added.
The ministerial and commerce secretary level talks of India and Pakistan this year agreed after approval by the Pakistan Cabinet the negative list would be removed and Pakistan would transition fully to the MFN status for India by end-December 2012.
MFN status is a WTO obligation and Pakistan has to grant the status for enhancing the trade.
Lauding the efforts of Federal Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Munir Qureshi Secretary Commerce he appreciated their key role in highlighting true perspective of Indo-Pak relations with its due importance before their Indian counterpart and other leaders across the border to bring normalcy in ties.
India is a big market for us and therefore by granting MFN status to India we can open a large window of opportunity in India for Pakistani products.
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