India to prune duties for Pak, Sri Lanka under SAFTA
Wednesday, 4 February 2015 00:00
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NEW DELHI: India will bring down the list of sensitive items that are presently shielded from duty cuts under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) for Pakistan and Sri Lanka in a calibrated manner.
‘”I think in the next committee of experts meeting, we will see a further pruning of list,” said Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary A.M. Gondane at a conference on ‘enhancing India-Pakistan trade’ organised by ICRIER on Monday.
Gondane said that India had already almost dismantled the sensitive list for all least developed country members of SAARC.
“We will also be doing it for Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka had earlier told us that bringing down the sensitive list would have revenue implications for them, but I think some movement is likely to happen soon,” Gondane said.
On what could be done to enhance trade between India and Pakistan currently stuck at a little more than $ 2 billion, Gondane said that one needed to go beyond rhetoric and try to analyse what the real problems were.
“Two countries may have political differences, but it need not restrain trade and economic relations,” pointed out Ishrat Husain, Dean and Director, IBA, Karachi.
Husain said that trade between India and China had prospered despite political differences and so had China-Taiwan trade. “The same can happen for India and Pakistan and the two countries need to seriously look at it,” he said.
