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April 7th,2013
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PAKISTAN HOPS TO NEGATIVE LIST REGIME FOR INDIAN TRADE

The ministry of Commerce has issued the statutory regulatory orders (SRO) to switch over to negative list regime to trade with India. According to the notification 1209 items have been penned down in the negative list and will not be able to import from India to Pakistan. India would now be allowed to export 7500 items. In positive list India would export only 1946 items in which the key export products will be vegetables, meat products, animals, fruits, tea, spices, palm oil, crude oil, sugar cotton and organic chemicals. According to the statement of an official of the ministry, under SRO the total number of importable items from India to Pakistan would be 137 and the land route adopted for it would be Wagah. Pakistan has often complained that it cannot penetrate the Indian market. According to officials this is also the reason why it cannot grant MFN status to India all these years. However India depicts it in this way that there should be no negative list and once everything starts running smoothly fears of the domestic industry would also go away. They further say that the issuance of the negative list would result In washing out whatever little progress they have made. There is also a lot of apprehension in Pakistan that the domestic industry would be badly impacted if trading with India is normalized.

Pakistani official said that the finalizing list would help in formally starting the trade between both the countries which will be beneficial for both the nations. He further said that the trade with Indian negative list regime was only to protect our local industry and the negative list would be phased out in December 31, 2012. These decisions however seems like would badly affect the trade between both the countries and also their economy at large.