MFN status if trade barriers removed: Pak

Marking a departure from its stand of linking improvement in trade relations with India to the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Pakistan has said it could grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India if New Delhi ensured a level-playing field by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on its finished goods.

Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, who till recently insisted that Pakistan would consider progress in trade relations if there was progress in dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue, in an interview to local daily The Nation today linked the MFN status to India taking steps to remove barriers imposed on Pakistan’s exports.