Potential to increase Pak-India trade up to 50 times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan-India trade could increase up to 50 times its current level by taking immediate measures like easing restrictions on visas, opening additional road border crossings, bus routes, air links and increasing the number of customs posts.

India could become a large market for Pakistani fruits, cement and textile products in a free trade environment and exports of these commodities could fetch billion of dollars, said CEO Harvest Trading, Ahmad Jawad in a statement here Friday.

More recent study shows the potential of formal trade between India and Pakistan is roughly 20 times greater than recorded trade, he added.

He said that strengthening trade links will also help to over come the trust deficit between the two countries as trade is the only source to bring peace and prosperity for this region,

Ahmad said that India and Pakistan could jointly market mango in the international market for eight to nine months in a year because mango season in India starts in March and continues till June while the season in Pakistan begins in June and lasts till October.

Total trade between India and Pakistan in 2008 amounted to a little more than US$ 2 billion, up from a paltry US$ 500 million in 2000.

But still Pakistan accounts for less than 0.5 per cent of India's trade and India accounts for a little over 1 per cent of Pakistan's trade compared with the very large trade shares following the independence of the two countries in 1947.

Ahmad Jawad said that informal trade, via third countries (such as Dubai), is estimated at some US$ 2-3 billion per year and this trade could obviously be undertaken bilaterally at significantly lower cost.

Before undertaking more long-term and wide-ranging fundamental trade reforms, both countries need to build public support for trade liberalization between them, he added.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011