Pakistan may announce negative list with India soon

New Delhi, Feb 28: Pakistan is likely to announce the negative list soon which will open trade with India for all goods except those mentioned in the small list, a Pakistan government official has said.

Eventually, the negative list would also be phased out which is the step towards Pakistan granting the most favoured nation (MFN) status to India which may see the light of the day by next year.

"... well negative list our Prime Minister (Yousaf Raza Gillani) has already announced by the end of this month it will be announced ... I think by March it will be done ...," Pakistan High Commission Minister (Trade) Naeem Anwar said at a PHDCCI event yesterday.

Earlier, Pakistan had committed that it will switch over from the restrictive positive list regime to a negative list this month, but a timeline for phasing out the negative list will be announced later.

He said that once all the ministries are on board, then the notification will be issued mentioning the plan for removing the trade barriers.

"...once there is consensus it will go to the Cabinet and Central Board of Revenue and Ministry of Commerce ... you will see the notification. Notification will give the plan that how will it be phased out...," Anwar said.

PTI