SOUTH ASIA: PAKISTAN: IndoPak Trade Issues

• Undeterred by the Pakistan's decision to defer the issue of pruning the negative list for trade with India, Mr. Sharma said he would be discussing the issue of grant of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India as well the issue of pruning the negative list to give a fillip to trade.

  • While officials from both the sides are still at work to put together a “comprehensive package”, indications are the deal this time may have to be limited to agreements on customs cooperation and redressal of trade grievances along with a mutual recognition agreement that will enable a regime with common standards.

• The three MoUs are 

  • Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters Agreement, 
  • Bilateral Cooperation Agreement on Mutual Recognition between Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority and Bureau of Indian Standards, and 
  • Agreement on Redressal of Trade Grievances between Pakistan and India.

• Pakistan commerce department had finalized a negative list of 636 items and it is likely to be implemented in three phases starting June 30 and ending by 2012.

  • But differences within the cabinet have meant that the Indian delegation led by commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma may return without any substantial gain from the visit, the first bilateral trip by an Indian trade minister.
  • Sharma hasn’t given up just yet. He intends to discuss the MFN status and the negative list issue with his Pakistani counterpart
    • India indicated that it was ready to put in place a liberal multiple visa regime in place if Pakistan reciprocated on the issue.
    • India and Pakistan are holding talks not only to opening up another border trading point at the Wagah Border but also at Mona Bao in Rajasthan.
• Analysts said the political instability in the country had cast its shadow on trade. Analysts said any decision on the MFN issue would have to wait until there was more clarity on the political situation.
• Sections of Pakistan’s domestic industry are worried that Indian goods would swamp the Pakistan market once trade ties return to normal.

 

New Silk Road

New Silk Road

• The old Silk Road connected China, India, Persia, Arabia, Rome and Egypt through a network of routes that moved merchants and preachers, goods and ideas across the vast Eurasian landmass.
• The creation of modern territorial states steadily closed down inner Asian frontiers that were once the most open and productive in the world. As a result, Afghanistan, Central Asia and western China are now landlocked.
  

SOUTH ASIA: Pakistan (Dialogue)

Pak steps out of 15-yr cold, gives India Most Favoured Nation trade status

• Pakistan today decided to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India in a move that is expected to boost bilateral trade far beyond the current $2.6 billion.
• India had granted MFN status to Pakistan way back in 1996 but Islamabad — linking it to the Kashmir issue — had not reciprocated until today.
  

SOUTH ASIA: Pakistan (Dialogue)

Snakes and charmers

• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Pakistan that keeping snakes in one’s backyard and hoping that they will only bite the neighbours is not a sensible policy. Clinton was talking about the Haqqani network and other militant groups long nurtured by the Pakistan army and the ISI to bleed the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
• Clinton warned the Pakistan army that if it does not go after the snakes, the US might have to do it unilaterally
  

SOUTH ASIA: Afghanistan (Dialogue)

Karzai and Pakistan

• Afghanistan president, Hamid Karzai, declared once again that there was no point in talking to the Taliban any more.
• His point is that the peace process in Afghanistan is not about internal reconciliation, but of external interference from across the Durand Line.
• intelligence officials in Kabul have accused the ISI of plotting the murder of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president of Afghanistan appointed by Karzai as the interlocutor with the Taliban.