ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Minister for Commerce, Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan Friday informed the National Assembly that no proposal was under consideration to give Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India.
Responding to a question during the question hour, the minister said that India was neither given MFN status nor was any such proposal under consideration.
He said that existence of the negative list was the clear indication that this status has not been given to India.
He said that since assuming the power by Modi government in January 2014, no bilateral trade talks took place between India and Pakistan. Regarding the Non-Tariff Barriers, he said that such issues are dealt on case to case basis with India.
He said that the positive list has been transformed into negative list adding 150 items of India are being imported into Pakistan through Wagah border.
Khurram Dastigir said that there must be a detailed debate in this house on whether we want to link trade with security issues of the country.
He said that China and Taiwan were in conflict but their bilateral trade is $200 billion per annum while China and India also have hostile relations, but their bilateral trade stands at $75 billion per annum.
He said that being the member of World Trade Organization (WTO), we cannot discriminate between its members in trade, adding Pakistan has been raising its security concerns in the world forums when it come to trade with India.
He informed the house that according to Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), the India business houses (registered as a foreign companies having Indian origin under Companies Ordinance included F7C Osler and Indian Airlines Limited.
The minister said that that country’s exports to Europe have increased by 12.5 percent. The minister said a grand textile expo-exhibition would be held during upcoming Spring season to showcase Pakistani quality products to the world and attract market.
The minister urged the women involved in business to form their own chambers so that they may have platform to showcase their products.
Source: APP
