Pakistan may give 'most favoured nation' status to India by month-end

NEW DELHI: India-Pakistan trade relations could move forward even as tension mounts over the gruesome killing of two Indian jawans. Pakistan's commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim is expected to visit India later this month to announce 'most favoured nation' ( MFN) status to India.

Islamabad has gradually allowed more Indian goods to be imported by shifting to trade based on negative list, but has missed the December 31 deadline to lift all curb by giving MFN status to India. MFN status would allow free trade between the two countries, currently pegged at about $2 billion.

"The commerce minister of Pakistan may come later this month to participate in the three-day investment summit in Agra where he could announce MFN status to India," a government official told ET. Pakistan's trade secretary Munir Qureshi will accompany the minister.

Ministers and officials from other countries will also attend the summit that starts on January 27 and is being organised by the commerce and industry ministry.

India had given Pakistan the MFN status under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules way back in 1996, which means that in terms of trade matters it would be treated like any other country.

In February last year Pakistan eased curbs on imports from India by shifting from a positive list of imports that allowed less than 2,000 goods to be imported from India to a negative list. Only 1,123 items mentioned in the list cannot be imported from India which resulted in opening of trade in more than 7,000 products.