Internews/Lahore

Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir has said trade with India will accelerate growth in Pakistan instead of hurting its economy.
Pakistan opened 85% of its trade with India about 26 months ago, which didn’t upset its economy, he told members of Lahore Economic Journalists Association. “No country in the world has achieved economic success without opening up its economy,” he pointed out.
The commerce minister said that Pakistan accorded free trade agreement to China seven years back and yet the local industry continued to show resilience and didn’t cave in. Pakistan is just waiting for the installation of the new government in India after which hopefully the issue of granting non-discriminatory market access would be resolved, he said.
Dastgir said barring two issues, India has never discriminated Pakistan in trade matters ever since it granted most favoured nation status to Pakistan.
“Pakistan is having trade with over 100 countries and it applies MFN tariffs on all of them except India. Why discriminate against India,” he asked.
The minister said the previous government, in fact, opened up 85% tariff lines for India as enjoyed by all other countries. Since then, the government has not received any complaint on Indian imports from any sector, he said.
“What difference would the opening of remaining tariff lines make on our economy,” he wondered.
The commerce minister informed the participants that India was notorious for its non-tariff barriers (NTBs). Even the European Union and US are fighting for removal of these barriers, he said.
Pakistan-specific NTBs include the strict visa regime and the absence of banking channels. India has committed to make its visa procedure easy for Pakistani businesspersons like it has for others. Besides, both the countries have permitted their banks to open branches, though the progress is slow, said the minister.
He was of the view that Pakistan should continue to conduct trade with India despite these barriers. “As the bilateral trade expands, the barriers would be removed.” He ruled out the impact of agri imports from India on Pakistan’s agriculture sector. Out of total 138 items allowed to be imported from India through Wagah border, 55 are agriculture commodities.
The minister went on to say that subsidies on agriculture produce in India would not hurt Pakistani farmers - who fear of losing competitiveness to cheap Indian products. He further said that tunnel farming was not largely hurt during the last 26 months of liberalising trade with India.
Dastgir conceded that local textiles were facing some barriers, which the government was trying to address through dialogues. He said trade with India should not be hostage to historical disputes between the two countries. He added all other countries are keeping their political and territorial disputes separate from trade.
Though China does not recognise Taiwan, their bilateral trade is over$200bn. Likewise, despite the territorial dispute, China-India’s bilateral trade volume crossed $70bn from $5bn in 2004. The ministry of commerce is revisiting all statutory regulatory orders that put Pakistani manufacturers at disadvantage and impede free trade, said the commerce minister.
“Above 7% annual growth will remain a dream until we fully open up our economy. I have full confidence in the resilience of our businessmen who would take on the challenge of global competition head-on by improving their technology, efficiency and processes,” he said.