‘Pakistan ready to confer MFN status on India’

Pakistan has indicated that it will shortly confer the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India, reliable European sources told The News.F...

Pakistan has indicated that it will shortly confer the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India, reliable European sources told The News.

Followed by the parliamentary ratification of the EU-Pakistan Third Generation Trade Cooperation Agreement, trade officials at the European Commission are closely watching the trade relations between India and Pakistan. Pakistani mission to the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO), according to the sources, has also recently advised the government that there is no harm in giving MFN status to India and ‘‘it is the time to move forward positively on this issue’’.

‘‘Indian and Pakistani goods were indirectly reaching each other’s markets via Dubai and Singapore due to restrictions on direct trade and it will be in the interest of both the countries to remove all the trade barriers as early as possible,’’ a trade official in Brussels said.

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Pakistan’s permanent representative in the WTO, Dr Manzoor Ahmed, according to the European official, had also assured the EU trade commissioner that Pakistan would shortly take the necessary initiative in opening up trade with India.

India has officially ruled out moving to the WTO against Pakistan for not granting MFN status as Indian diplomats have informed the European trade officials that India wanted Islamabad to do so without any ‘‘external pressure’’. Pakistan and India are likely to resume talks shortly on various issues including trade.

	Pak jets, copters raze Qaeda strongholds

			• WANA: Pakistani warplanes and helicopter gunships roared over hideouts of Al Qaeda-linked militants on Saturday in barren mountains bordering Afghanistan where 53 people have been killed in four days of fighting. PTI added that during the air-borne attacks, the Army killed five Al Qaeda militants while losing an equal number of soldiers. —Agencies

Experts in Brussels say that any delay in granting MFN status to India will not be in the interest of Pakistan as WTO regime will come into force at the end of this year, under which no country will have to wait to seek the MFN status. That way, all trade barriers will be removed from January 1, 2005 and India and Pakistan will automatically have reciprocal MFN status. —(The News)

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