Customs cooperation Pakistan, India may sign accord
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India are to sign an agreement on customs cooperation aimed at facilitation of trade consignments and exchange of trade data and information, well-informed sources in Commerce Ministry told Business Recorder here Thursday. Islamabad has already expressed its willingness to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, after which both countries are expected to ink Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at a meeting with Pakistan Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, said that Pakistan should not be afraid to grant MFN status New Delhi as it would not hurt Pakistan's trade interests.
The sources said federal cabinet has recently been apprised that Pakistan and India have held five rounds of talks on economic and commercial cooperation under the composite dialogue programme. It was revealed that during the 5th round held in Islamabad on April 27-28, 2011 at the level of secretaries, bilateral mutual customs cooperation was recognised as pivotal to all other efforts being made between the two countries for increasing bilateral trade which required harmonization of customs procedures, facilitation of trade consignments and exchange of trade data and information.
It was, therefore, proposed to sign an agreement on following areas of customs cooperation: (i) exchange of information to ensure proper allocation of customs laws and accurate assessment of customs duties; (ii) provision of proper and adequate infrastructural facilities at the entry and exit of the customs stations; and (iii) establishment of joint border liaison committee for close cooperation between the border customs stations.
Ministry of Commerce is also in process of switching trade arrangements with India from existing 'positive list' to 'negative list' of importable items from India in pursuance of the agreements reached during the Commerce Secretary level talks held in April, 2011.
During Commerce Secretary level talks, Pakistan had recognised that grant of MFN status to India would help in expanding bilateral trade relations. Both sides also agreed to remove the non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and all other restrictive practices, which hamper bilateral trade.
During Commerce Secretary level talks Pakistani side agreed to take immediate necessary steps to ensure that non-discriminatory trade regime is operationalised at the earliest. The consultative process in this regard has been set in motion and information from all stakeholders including business chambers and trade bodies is being collected to replace the present positive list with a negative list. It was agreed that this process would be completed by October, 2011.
The MoC maintains that since it is a time-bound exercise, to be completed by October 15, 2011, all the stakeholders had been requested to furnish their recommendations along with justification for inclusion of the importable items from India in 'negative list'.