Syed Asif Shah, Secretary Commerce, has stated that there is no provision in South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement that requires Pakistan to grant Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to India.
Bilateral trade promotion depends on positive outcome of Comprehensive Pakistan-India Composite Dialogue and a level playing field in trade for Pakistan by India.
Regional trade can be promoted through multilateral and bilateral trading agreements and Pakistan will continue with this policy.
He was speaking at the launching ceremony of a report 'The Challenges and Potential of Pakistan-India Trade' prepared by World Bank's Zareen F Naqvi and Philip Schuler on Monday.
The report suggests that if Pakistan is unable to grant MFN status to India due to political reasons then it should develop a new short negative list for India in place of positive list.
This would allow import of all items from India that are not mentioned in proposed negative list for India.
Pakistan and India account for 90 percent of South Asia's GDP and regional trade is just 0.4 percent of world trade. Economic growth of this region is curbed due to less trade between Pakistan and India.
The Secretary Commerce, however, clarified that Pakistan would allow tariff benefits to India under SAFTA only on items mentioned in the Positive List.
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