Pakistan’s Cabinet approves negative trade list with India

Pakistan’s Cabinet approves negative trade list with India

A Cabinet meeting was recently held in Pakistan which was chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousuf Raza Gilani. The matter that was being discussed was the negative trade list with India. The cabinet of the country unanimously made a decision in
support of moving over to a policy that allows a negative trade regime with India.

The proposal made is an attempt to make better the relationships between the two countries. Previously, the government of Pakistan ruled by the Pakistan People’s Party had taken measures through which trade between the two nations would be on the mend as
there was talk of giving India the status of the most favoured nation.

The following statement was released by the Cabinet of Pakistan on the matter of the negative trade list with India: "After that (phasing out of the negative list), the process of trade normalisation between the two countries will be completed."

According to some sources, the negative trade list that has been approved by the Cabinet of Pakistan consists of trade items that are more than 1,200. These items would consist of those products that will not be able to be traded from India. However, the
move has the potential of expanding trade with India as Pakistan will be able to import a total of 6,800 items from its neighbouring country.

In the event that this happens, the number of products imported from India will increase dramatically and benefit trade on both sides of the border. At present, the number of items that Pakistan imports from India equals to be 1,950.

Apart from the negative trade list discussed in the Cabinet of Pakistan, the Ministry of Commerce also has drafted a negative trade list that consists of a total of 636 items.

The less number of items put in the negative trade list is because of the fact that some industries in Pakistan want protection from Indian imports in order to develop. These industries specifically include the textile industry of the country. The stakeholders
of these industries are threatened by the fact that competition from Indian products will diminish Pakistani sales.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=14306

Posted by Rabiya Maqbool on Feb 29 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry