Pakistan Grants MFN Status to India - If diplomacy can't end enmity, then trade should be given a chance to turn yesterday's foes into today's friends
PAKISTAN'S government announced yesterday that it would normalise trade with its neighbour India.
India is to get ‘Most Favoured Nation' status and that would enable Pakistan to export more goods to booming India at a time when Pakistan's own economy is in doldrums.
Most Pakistani and Indian business quarters welcomed the decision, but in Pakistan, there was also strong opposition and some feared that cheaper Indian goods would be flooding the Pakistani markets.
The annual trade between India and Pakistan is estimated to be around 1 billion dollars and this could grow to 9 billion dollars. As of now, the trade is mostly illicit, with goods going to Gulf first and from there, smuggled to both countries making them more expensive and bringing no tax revenue to the governments.
MFN status means that countries trade on equal and improved terms, typically giving each other low tariffs and high import quotas. India gave Pakistan MFN in 1996, but Pakistan but it took Pakistan a good 15 years to reciprocate.
Pakistan has long complained that Indian quality standards and customs procedures have hindered the flow of its goods into India.
“We deeply appreciate this positive gesture that Pakistan has taken,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in New Delhi.
Pakistani Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Pakistan has taken this decision keeping in view its national interests and taking all stakeholders into confidence and without compromising “our national sovereignty”. Pakistan, she said, has already granted MFN status to 100 countries including China for boosting its regional trade for the benefit of the country. The Minister recalled that granting of MFN status to India was started in 1947 and 1948 as Father of Nation Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Quaid-e-Millat Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan initiated this vision and the present government has fulfilled their vision.
Some comments heard in Pakistan,
“They (the federal government) are doing it under the US pressure. It`ll be India's victory if Pakistan grants it MFN status.
If diplomacy can't end enmity, then trade should be given a chance to turn yesterday's foes into today's friends.
If Germany and France, and China and Taiwan can trade, why not Pakistan and India?”