Restricted Indian Import Depriving Pakistan Cost Advantage: Envoy.

Pakistan's economy is losing out on cost and freight advantage for goods and machinery due to its "highly restricted" import list from India, Indian high commissioner Sharat Sabharwal said today.

India has fulfilled its commitment under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement by drawing up a "sensitive list" beyond which all items can be imported from Pakistan and other SAARC countries.

Pakistan continues to maintain a "positive list" of less than 2,000 items and bans the import of other goods from India, Sabharwal said.

Addressing the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he expressed the hope that this situation will change in the interest of expanded trade relations between the two countries.

Sabharwal also referred to Pakistan’s oft-repeated concerns about India’s "so-called non-tariff and para-tariff barriers".

This appears to be a reference to “requirements of technical standard certification, standard of quality (and) sanitary and health regulations” that apply to all of India’s trading partners and are “not specific to Pakistan”, he said.

“However, keeping the import list from India highly restricted because of such perceived barriers only deprives the Pakistani economy of goods and machinery that can be imported from India at considerable cost and freight advantage,” the envoy said.

He also made a mention of a report on development imperatives prepared by a panel of economists appointed by Pakistan’s Planning Commission.

Sabharwal said the documents speaks of “several advantages of normalising trade between India and Pakistan for the Pakistani economy”.

These advantages include cheaper transportation costs and absence of the need for the Pakistani industry to maintain large inventories of raw material, intermediate goods and parts that are available in India and can be imported at short notice.

Sabharwal expressed his happiness that a number of Pakistani business delegations had visited India over the past year.

A team of 50 businessmen visited Delhi in May at the invitation of the Confederation of Indian Industry while 40 Pakistani businessmen attended a buyer-seller meeting of the chemical industry in Delhi last month.

A total of 269 Pakistani businessmen were given visas to attend the CII Chandigarh Fair during Oct-Nov, while 185 business visas for that country have been issued for the ongoing India International Trade Fair.

Source : dnaindia.com