Chairman Standing Committee on Banking, Credit and Finance FPCCI, Dr Baig is optimistic that as per the joint declaration of the two commerce ministers in Delhi, India will support Pakistan and withdraw their objection against duty free export to EU in the forthcoming WTO meeting to be held on 20th October 2011 in Brussels.
Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, on his return from India, disclosed that on the strong recommendation of the business community of Pakistan including President FPCCI Senator Ghulam Ali and President India-Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry S. M. Muneer, the government of Pakistan has principally agreed to give Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India and liberalise trade between the two countries. Subsequently, the same has been announced by the commerce and foreign ministers of Pakistan.
India has already granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1995 and on the recent visit of Pakistani businessmen delegation, agreed to remove all non-tariff barriers on the export of Pakistani goods to India. Both the countries have agreed to set a target of dollars six billion in next three years from the present level of $1.8 billion annually.
The government of Pakistan has agreed to remove items from the negative list, allowing their import from India towards implementation of Safta agreement. Dr Baig said that with these steps there will be direct trade between India and Pakistan and all illegal trade of more than $2 billion routing through Dubai and Singapore will be stopped.-PR