ISLAMABAD – The commerce secretaries of India and Pakistan will be holding a two-day dialogue by the end of April in which Pakistan will again try to convince India not to oppose the European Union trade concessions, to be discussed at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) General Council on May 3, the Commerce Ministry said on Monday.
Commerce Secretary Zafar Mehmood told reporters that a date for the Indian commerce secretary’s visit was being finalised and was most likely to take place in the last week of April.
He said the agenda was not finalised yet, but Pakistan would raise the issue of EU trade concessions during the talks. “The provision of concessional trade package to any natural disaster-hit country is not against the norms, as the US provided similar concessions to Haiti after the devastating earthquake. We are hopeful that these trade concessions will be approved by WTO in May,” he said. The implementation on EU-announced trade concessions for Pakistan remain on the halt as South Asian neighbours, India and Bangladesh, opposed granting the concessions to Pakistan at the meeting of the WTO Council for Trade in Goods in Geneva on March 21. The opposition by India had already delayed their implementation from January 1 to April 1, 2011.
The concessions could be implemented only if approved with consensus from the council. Pakistan’s commerce minister had written letters to India and other countries in February this year addressing their concerns on the
