Process of MFN status to India by Pak to be completed by 2012

NEW DELHI: India today said with Pakistan agreeing to open its market completely for Indian goods by end-2012, the process of grant of most-favoured nation status to New Delhi will be complete.

"With the entire phasing out of the negative list, the transition process to Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment shall be completed," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Pakistan has agreed to open its market for over 7,000 items from India in the next three months.

At the end of two-day talks held between commerce secretaries of the two countries here on November 14-15, Islamabad agreed to widen market access for Indian goods by moving from a Positive List (PL) to Negative List (NL) trade regime by February, 2012.

This would translate into a huge opportunity for Indian businessmen, who will be able to ship all but a few items to a the Pakistani market -- with a population of 150 million -- through the land, air and sea route.

"In the first stage, Pakistan will transition from the current Positive List (PL) approach to a Negative List(NL)... A small NL shall be finalised and ratified by February, 2012. Thereafter, all items other than those on the NL shall be freely exportable from India to Pakistan," the joint statement said.

In the second phase, the NL would be phased out. "The timing for this phasing out will be announced in February, 2012... and it is expected that the phasing out will be completed before the end of 2012," the statement said.

At present, Pakistan allows the import of just 1,946 Indian items, listed in the Positive List.

India and Pakistan, which saw their relations hit a low after the Mumbai terror attack in November, 2008, have been reaching out to each other in the past few months, realising that trade can bridge their political gaps.

At present, bilateral trade between the two countries stands at USD 2.7 billion.