No hurry to push PTA with Pakistan: India

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NEW DELHI, May 3 (Economic Times): India is in no hurry to push for preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Pakistan despite agreeing to explore the idea at the recent meeting between the two countries. "We could work on a PTA with Pakistan, but this can happen only after they stop discriminatory trade," an official said. Pakistan has agreed to end discrimination against Indian exports by switching over to a negative list by October this year. At present, Pakistan allows imports of only 2000 items from India. Under a negative list approach, the usual way of conducting bilateral trade, only select items will face restrictions. "Till Pakistan agrees to trade with us on the basis of a negative list of items, there is no way we can take up the PTA proposal with the TERC," the official said, referring to the prime minister's trade and economic relations committee that approved such pacts. So far, Pakistan has not extended the most favoured nation, or MFN, status to India, which is a basic non-discriminatory status that a country gives to its trading partner under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Both both India and Pakistan are members of the multilateral trading agreement. The two sides were deliberately using the term `non-discriminatory' trade instead of the MFN, as granting such a status is a politically sensitive issue in Pakistan. "Pakistani commerce secretary Zafar Mehmood is likely to visit in November when we will take stock of the progress achieved on all fronts," commerce secretary Rahul Khullar told the reporter.