The Hindu : Front Page : India, Pakistan for better trade ties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 30, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

India, Pakistan for better trade ties

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Branches of scheduled banks to be opened in each country; shipping pact soon

ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan agreed on a number of proposals at the end of the third round of talks on economic and commercial cooperation within the framework of the Composite Dialogue here on Wednesday.

A joint statement welcomed the ratification of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) by all SAARC member-countries.

The clarification by Pakistan Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah that the country would extend SAFTA to India means trade and economic relations between the countries are poised to grow in a new direction. With the operationalisation of SAFTA from July 1, over 4,000 commodities will be open for trade compared to less than 1,000 under the India `positive list' maintained by Pakistan.

Shipping agreement

According to the statement, a new shipping agreement would be signed in the near future. Talks on air services agreement would be concluded expeditiously.

The existing deal was signed before the era of private airlines. Both sides are in agreement to give an important role to private airlines.

In line with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's announcement, during his visit to India in November 2004, on opening branches of scheduled banks in each country, the central banks would process applications expeditiously.

To identify problems in transportation of goods by rail, representatives of the Ministries of Railways of both sides held a meeting on the sidelines of the talks.

Pakistan and India would constitute a working group to discuss the issues of joint registration of Basmati rice SGI.India would provide detailed proposals for trade in IT-enabled medical services.

It was noted that the laying of optical fibre on the Indian side would be completed in the near future. Soon, India and Pakistan are expected to have a fibre link through Wagah.

The initiative on liberalisation of the visa regime would be discussed. Pakistan has taken note of the Indian proposal to convene a meeting of technical level experts at the Attari-Wagah border to draw up proposals for upgrading infrastructure to facilitate trade including export of transit cargo of Afghanistan.

An MoU on mutual cooperation in capital markets has been conveyed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to its counterpart in India.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section