The Hindu : National : FICCI hails business council proposal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 18, 2005

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National

FICCI hails business council proposal

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) president, Onkar S. Kanwar, has hailed the idea of setting up a joint business council (JBC) with Pakistan.

In a statement here, he said the JBC agreement in the form of the India-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry was already in existence between the FICCI and its Pakistani counterpart, the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry — the only apex and influential chamber of Pakistan.

Under its framework, since 1999, there had been frequent exchanges of trade delegations and joint working groups had been set up on trade, non-trade barriers and infrastructure. The FICCI, he said, would be delighted to resuscitate this agreement into a powerful JBC with involvement of other stakeholders and business associations.

"We feel that there are four focus areas that this JBC must focus on," the FICCI president said.

It was imperative to open up trade (exports) from India to Pakistan across a large number of sectors, which, at present, was limited to 768 items. Instead of a small positive list of 768 items, there should be a negative list, from the Pakistani side, of sectors that they might wish to protect and all other sectors must open up for trade. This had become a stepping-stone to the grant of the `most favoured nation' (MFN) status, he said.

For trade and investment to prosper, the infrastructure facilitation is critical, Mr. Kanwar said. A road route via the Wagah border through custom-bonded warehouses on either side of the border on the pattern of Indo-Bangladesh trans-shipment across Petrapole would multiply trade manifold. Similarly, bilateral agreements on regular cargo movement through rail and the connectivity of the two capitals by air shall enhance trade and investment flows between the two countries, he said.

The JBC must also focus on trade in services, which could emerge as a huge potential area between the two countries. Pakistan could benefit immensely through Indian expertise in the Information Technology and IT-related services, medical and hospitalisation and tourism.

Free trade pact

Under its ambit, the JBC could start working on the framework for a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Pakistan. Already, the two countries were committed to the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), due to start in 2006. Under the bilateral FTA, India and Pakistan could move faster towards a tariff-free regime and together take advantage of third country exports.

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