Pak may grant MFN status to India later this month

[Paan Singh]

New Delhi: India expects Pakistan to announce elimination of negative list of items later this month that will pave the way for full normalisation of bilateral trade and accordance of MFN status to New Delhi. Pakistan has missed the deadline of December 31, 2012, for phasing out the negative list regime.
A government official said that Pakistan's Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Secretary Munir Qureshi are coming to India to participate in the three-day Annual Partnership Summit in Agra. Ministers and officials from several countries are expected to attend the summit that begins on January 27.
"Trade ministers (of India and Pakistan) are expected to meet before that. I think it (announcement of doing away with the negative list and accordance of MFN status to India) will happen prior to that (summit)," the official added.

Pakistan in March, 2012 had moved to a negative list regime for trade opening its market for about 7,000 Indian goods against about 2,000 under the positive list. Under the negative list regime, India cannot export 1,209 items to Pakistan.
Elimination of negative list would technically mean automatic grant of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had expressed the hope in December last year that Pakistan would honour its assurance of granting MFN status to India. He had even spoken to Fahim on telephone on the issue.
The bilateral trade between the countries stood at about USD 2 billion in 2011

Pak may grant MFN status to India later this month: Official - India - IBNLive

 

[Papa]

We have already given MFN status to each other since 1947... Isn't it?

 

[airmarshal]

Its should not. India needs to be seen and tested as a trustworthy partner first.

 

[Haseebullah]

Yeh kia chutiyaapa hai!

 

[Varunastra]

don't think so..

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Yeh kia chutiyaapa hai!

I admire the elegant use of words to describe our troubled relations

 

[SHAMK9]

LOL, doubt it, Pakistan has been saying this since january last year.

 

[Sugarcane]

We have two options
1. Solve fundamental issues first and go for business or
2. Agree on not to allow distractions to spoil business relation and pave way to solve fundamental issues
But both options are not practical for us. We are probably at square zero already.

 

[KRAIT]

Its should not. India needs to be seen and tested as a trustworthy partner first.

For that we need to trade and build relations.

We break ties on every event and start all over again.

How will you build trust without any relations ?

 

[Cheetah786]

For that we need to trade and build relations.

We break ties on every event and start all over again.

How will you build trust without any relations ?

To build trust we give you zardari you give us DR Singh

 

[KRAIT]

To build trust we give you zardari you give us DR Singh

Better we send them to US.

 

[Ayush]

good for pakistan

 

[my2cents]

We have two options
1. Solve fundamental issues first and go for business or
2. Agree on not to allow distractions to spoil business relation and pave way to solve fundamental issues
But both options are not practical for us. We are probably at square zero already.

I will choose option number 2.

Which nation has no issues with their neighbors? Still countries do not allow these distractions to derail their bilateral trade.
US and Mexico have illegal migrants and drug issues but their bilateral trade reached 460 billion last year. This happened after NAFTA was signed between US, Mexico and Canada. We have SAFTA for south Asian region but nothing came of it.

India and China have border issues but our bilateral trade is growing.... is likely to touch 100 billion dollars this year(two years before target). About 300 Chinese firms have shown interest in investing in India and about 50-60 Indian business firms going to set up shop in China. When trade grows between two countries, much needed investment in our countries grows too.

 

[darkinsky]

never................................

 

[Haseebullah]

I admire the elegant use of words to describe our troubled relations

/
I am not a fan of diplomacy when we are shelled by the enemy.