Natwar Wants Trade

[EagleEyes]

Here you go Mr. Natwar now wants better trade relations with us. He was talking very much about Karachi that if the trade between India and Pakistan goes well, Karachi will prosper even more, he says that the qualtivity on industry in Karachi will greatly improve.

He also says that business in Karachi is very well known in India. :clapping:

Natwar ends Pakistan visit with calls for intensified trade
Wednesday October 05, 2005 (1500 PST)

KARACHI: India's External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh Wednesday ended a four-day visit to Pakistan, urging Islamabad to open up its economy and meeting prominent personalities of this port city where India is set to reopen its consulate shut over a decade ago.

Determined to expand people-to-people contacts, Natwar Singh, who flew in here from Islamabad Tuesday evening, inspected the consulate in Pakistani financial capital that closed down in the wake of the razing of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya in 1992.

Singh used the opportunity to urge the Pakistan government, with whose top leaders he held extensive discussions Monday and Tuesday, to dramatically increase trade with India, saying this would benefit both countries, says a IANS report.

He urged Pakistani businessmen who called on him at a local hotel to persuade Islamabad to permit New Delhi to make Pakistan a transit hub for trade with Central Asia and the Gulf.

Addressing the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, he said: "We understand that there are certain industries (in Pakistan) which need to be protected.

"We urge Pakistan to make a negative list of these and open the rest for regular trade or at least open those items that she presently imports from elsewhere to Indian trade.

"For example, Pakistan can export cotton yarn, textile fabrics, surgical instruments, sports goods, electric fans and water coolers to India. We can even look at import of power from Pakistan if Pakistan has surplus power.

"India has recently offered liberalizing import of 116 tariff lines of interest to Pakistan in SAFTA. We are ready to look at non-tariff barriers...

"Similarly, India is in a position to fulfill Pakistan's annual demand of 100,000 units of vehicle tyres but the 46 percent import tariff on this item acts as a deterrent."

Natwar Singh, who is visiting Karachi after a gap of 23 years and has many friends here, met a cross-section of the city's civil and political leaders.

His first interaction was with political leaders including Sherbaz Khan Mazari and Mumtaz Ali Bhutto, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Hussain Haroon of The Dawn newspaper group, Hasan M. Jalisi of JJ Hospital and M.B. Naqvi of Pakistan Peace Coalition.

After addressing the businessmen, he met prominent leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). All of them urged Natwar Singh to speed up the process of intensifying friendly ties with Pakistan.

PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto lives in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai. MQM's top leader Altaf Hussain also lives in London and has in the past described the 1947 break up of India as a blunder.

Natwar Singh called on Pakistani businessmen here to use the opportunities thrown up by the peace process.

"Once we have better banking, airline, shipping and road transport linkages with each other, clearly the results will be even more significant.

"We are on the threshold of a major expansion in people-to-people and business contacts."

Natwar Singh paid special compliments to the people of Pakistan's commercial capital.

"It is my belief that the expansion in trade and economic cooperation between India and Pakistan will lead Karachi to an even more successful and qualitatively new stage of its evolution as a trading and commercial capital of Asia and the world.

"The spirit of (Karachi's) citizens and the enterprise of its businessmen are well known to everyone in India.

"I expect that the citizens and the business community of Karachi will lead the way forward in building a new future for the people of India and Pakistan."

Earlier, before flying to Karachi, Natwar Singh met President Pervez Musharraf and held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri. He also presided over the re-launch of the India-Pakistan Joint Commission, which last met in 1989.

In the talks, the two countries committed themselves to reaching a negotiated end to their dispute over Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Siachen glacier row.

Meanwhile, expressing hope that Indo-Pak talks on the Siachen issue will move forward, External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, however, said on Wednesday that there is no deadline for resolving it.

"There is no deadline for Siachen, but we hope talks will move forward," Singh said before leaving for home after a four-day visit to Pakistan during which he met President Pervez Musharraf and held talks with his counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on the Indo-Pak peace process.

A joint statement issued on Tuesday in Islamabad after his talks with Pakistani leaders said the two sides exchanged ideas on Siachen and agreed to continue their discussions so as to arrive at a common understanding before commencement of the next round of the Composite Dialogue in January.

Responding to a question, Singh said, "on some issues there can be no hurry. On some other there is speedy movement," but did not elaborate. Referring to the joint statement, he said, "concrete issues had figured in it, which is good for the dialogue process". Singh hoped that in coming days and months, there will be further movement in the peace process.

"The peace process is moving forward," he said, adding there have been some success but it does not mean that all problems have been resolved. Singh noted that people in both countries want the friendship to increase and tensions to end.

Before leaving for India, Singh called on his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri in Islamabad to thank him for the hospitality and expressed satisfaction over the talks.

Pak Tribune

 

[salman77]

Pakistan to sell 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh

* Now Pakistan has 1.5m tonnes surplus wheat

KARACHI: Pakistan will sell 50,000 tonnes of milling wheat to Bangladesh in a government-to-government deal at a discounted price despite a ban on the export of the commodity, a senior government official said on Friday.

Ismail Qureshi, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, said wheat would be sold to Bangladesh, which traditionally buys its wheat from India, at a price lower than the existing international price.

"We have partially lifted the ban on exports just to finalise this deal and also confirmed to the Bangladeshis that the wheat will be released very soon," Qureshi told Reuters.

"The offered price is much lower than the world market price," he said, but declined to elaborate. Agriculture officials said the state-run Pakistan Agriculture Supply and Storage Corporation was arranging the supplies from stocks of the Punjab provincial government, following a request from Bangladesh's government this month.

"The Bangladeshis had asked for 100,000 tonnes, but the government agreed to supply half of what they required," said another official at the Agriculture Ministry.

"We can sell another 50,000 tonnes in a month or so but only after assessing the stock situation."

Exports: Agriculture officials want to end a two-and-a-half-year ban on the duty-free export of wheat and have since May been evaluating a proposal to allow exports, following forecasts of a better-than-expected harvest of 21.7 million tonnes from the current 2006/07 crop.

Pakistan imposed a 15 percent export duty and then banned the export of wheat in May 2004, though the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan had stopped exporting a year earlier because of domestic supply shortfalls.

Pakistan now has a surplus of more than 1.5 million tons and agriculture officials are worried that rising stocks might push domestic prices below a government minimum of 415 rupees per 40kg, fixed to support farmers.

Qureshi said the government was closely monitoring wheat demand in the international market and would take a decision on allowing commercial exports "very soon.”

"We definitely have an exportable surplus so we can export a limited quantity next year," he said.

A decision on exports is expected when the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), the government's main economic decision-making body, meets next month, he said.

Pakistan's annual wheat consumption is 22 million tonnes. It has carryover stocks of 2.1 million tonnes from last year's crop, leaving an exportable surplus of more than 1.5 million tonnes.

Before the export ban, Pakistan's main markets were the Middle East and Africa. It exported 1.7 million tonnes of wheat in the 2002/03 fiscal year. reuters

 

[Cheetah786]

i very much like the idea of trade with india .but i really dont understand of selling wheat to bengalies at less.why do we have to sell for less if they were able to buy from india at full price why in the heck would we reduce the price.