India has no Pakistan-specific no-tariff barriers: Pranab

New Delhi, Mar 8 (UNI) India today said it did not have in force any Pakistan-specific no-tariff barrier and hence there was no justification in denial of Most Favoured Nation(MFN) treatment to it by Pakistan.

Pakistan should fulfil its obligations under the WTO and extend the MFN treatment to India, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

He was replying in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour to a supplementary from former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha who sought to know what were no-tariff barriers which Pakistan was demanding to lift as a condition for extending MFN, and also how the government was responding to Pakistan refusal to adhere to South Asia Free Trade Association(SAFTA) terms.

Mr Mukherjee said several round of talks had been held with the neighbouring country, and the issue was also raised at the SAARC forum.

''Our Commerce Minister tried to solve the issue in the February 26 SAARC ministerial meeting,'' he said.

He, however, said Pakistan had extended the list of positive items by 77 which has brought the total number of items for free trade to over 300.

UNI