Pak decides to liberalise trade with India to address its global trade deficit

Karachi, July 19 : The Pakistan Government has reportedly decided to liberalise trade with India, by adding more products to the list of importable items (from India). Pakistan government sources say that cheaper raw materials from India would make Pakistani products more competitive in the international market.

Announcing the government's decision to further liberalise trade with India, Pakistan's Minister of Commerce Chaudhry Ahmad Mukthar said in his trade policy speech: "We are allowing import of diesel and fuel oil from India, because it will be cheaper due to the difference in transportation cost. This will also help us to address our global trade deficit."

"We are announcing to enlarge the list of importable items from India, which is based on the requests of our stakeholders. Cheaper raw material sourced from India would make our exports more competitive in international market," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

He said that the composite dialogue process, especially on economic and commercial cooperation has been instrumental in addressing the bilateral issues.

Stainless steel and cotton yarn is importable from India by train, he said and added that in order to further reduce the cost of doing business, it has been decided to allow their import by trucks through Wahga as well.

He also announced various other measures that allow import of, or relax rules for import of various items. He said that in order to reduce the cost of manufacturing of liquefied gases etc, it has been decided to allow import of used cryogenic containers/cylinders by industrial consumers provided the Department of Explosives gives a prior NOC and the containers/cylinders are not older than 10 years, are refurbished prior to shipment and it is confirmed by a duly notified independent international certifying body that such containers/cylinders are compliant with international safety standards.

ANI