Journalism of Courage
With India insisting on non-discriminatory market access (NDMA) from Pakistan, the neighbouring nation has asked for a “sweetener”.
In a reply to a letter written by the commerce secretary of India, Pakistan had responded saying that it “wants immediate pruning of the SAFTA ( South Asia Free Trade Agreement) sensitive list, bringing down the tariff rate to not more than 5 per cent”, something which India had agreed to do by 2017, an official source told The Indian Express.
The response essentially meant that Pakistan still has certain “contradictory impulses” due to which the process of economic cooperation, set in motion in 2012, may get delayed. Earlier the commerce ministry had demanded that Pakistan should clarify by when it planned to offer NDMA before talks could proceed further. The ministry also sought a timeline for allowing trade of all goods through the Wagah border.
“During the visit to India Show in Lahore, our officials took up the issue and explained that the roadmap has already been finalised and agreed upon by the two sides. India has already completed its internal processes and its Pakistan’s turn to complete its internal procedures to honour the agreements. So now Pakistan is doing final consultation with its stakeholders and it will inform us in within a week,” the official said.
Only after Pakistan’s response, commerce minister Anand Sharma will take a call regarding his visit to the neighbouring country, the official added. The official also said that “full assurance has been given that there would be no offensive interest of swamping the market with Indian exports to injure domestic industry”, in a bid to assuage fears of the industry in Pakistan.
Earlier, India was scheduled to cut its sensitive list under the SAFTA pact to 100 for Pakistan by April 2013, while the neighbouring country was to reciprocate the same by 2017. However, India’s position was based on the conditionality of Pakistan granting it the NDMA status by December 2012. Since NDMA was not granted within the specified time, India has not pruned the sensitive list.
