ISLAMABAD: Indian High Commissioner Shiv Shankar Menon told businessmen here on Thursday that by refusing to implement the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement with India, their Government had denied Pakistan access to the huge Indian market, jeopardised the agreement for the other countries in the group and raised questions about its credibility on good faith negotiations.

Opportunity missed

Addressing the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on `Indian Economy and Pakistan,' Mr. Menon said: "Pakistan has chosen to turn her back on the Indian opportunity at her doorstep." Pakistan could have used the South Asian Free Trade Area agreement to access the Indian market and increase its exports, but it had instead chosen to limit the application of the treaty to a positive list of 773 items. "This is a negation of SAFTA, jeopardises its implementation and affects all the contracting parties."

If this had been Pakistan's intention, Mr. Menon asked why it had negotiated a "sensitive list" of products that would be outside SAFTA tariff concessions with India, and why leaders at the highest level had made public declarations of SAFTA giving India "MFN plus."

"This is not only a question of commitment to SAFTA and SAARC, but one of Pakistan's credibility, of her ability to undertake and implement good faith negotiations," he said.

Overland transit route

Pakistan's refusal to provide an overland transit route for trade between India and Afghanistan and Central Asia was another example of a decision by Islamabad that made neither economic sense, "nor has it contributed to the resolution of any political differences between India and Pakistan over the last 60 years."

He said while both countries had lost out by these decisions, in purely economic terms, "Pakistan, relative to the size of her foreign trade and economy, has lost more."

He made reference to a recent report by the State Bank of Pakistan detailing how much Pakistan stood to gain if trade with India was freed from political calculations.

Answering questions from the audience, he said India had already made it much easier than before for Pakistani businessmen to get visas, including one year multiple entry visas. Pakistan had also taken unilateral steps for visas to Indian businessmen. But for doing away with city restrictions and police reporting requirements, these steps could not be taken unilaterally, and both countries had to "sit down and jointly sort out" the issues involved.

Kasuri's assertion

The News quoted Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri saying that Pakistan had already given "MFN plus" status to India by lowering the tariffs under SAFTA for items in the positive list.

Islamabad had reduced tariffs on 90 per cent of the goods imported from India, boosting Indian exports by 300 to 400 per cent. "Deeds speak louder than words," he said.

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