ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that normalising of trade relations with India could boost up Pakistan’s exports to India up to three times in a short term as existing Pakistani exports to India were in the range of $500-$600 million annually.
He said that opening up of Pakistan’s market through Attari-Wagah border is linked to Indian grant of non-discriminatory market access on 250 export items from Pakistan and abolishing of sensitive list under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) in a more accelerated manner.
The minister said that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif extended an invitation to India’s commerce minister for visiting Pakistan on February 14 to inaugurate the Indian exhibition. “On the sidelines, both the sides could discuss a timeframe for enhancing the bilateral trade,” he said and adding that cooperation in the telecom sector and permitting TV channels in each other’s countries could be discussed in the next round of talks.
Pakistan would increase scanners at the Wagah border to facilitate the bilateral trade between the two countries, he maintained.
He said that he had told his Indian counterpart that India will have to remove two major Non-Tariff Barriers, the first one being granting of visas to our business community just as Pakistani side is fully facilitating the Indian businessmen. The second important confidence-building measure, he said, was that both countries should not allow any unwarranted incident to derail the peace and trade normalisation process. “India will have to demolish this wall of no visas to our businessmen,” the minister commented.
The minister said that there could be huge gains in the context of enhancing the bilateral ties but Pakistan would protect certain industries such as automobile, pharmaceuticals, synthetic fibre and some other sectors.
Commenting on the opening up of bank branches in each other’s countries, the minister said that there were no regulatory hindrances involved in this regard and now three banks would approach the Reserve Bank of India to get licences.
On establishing joint ventures, he said that such ventures were already established and more such ventures were on the cards.
