ISLAMABAD – Just a week before the World Trade Organisation’s General Council in Geneva decides the implementation of European Union’s trade concessions to Pakistan, Islamabad will try to address Indian concerns over the unilateral package when the two commerce secretaries hold two-day bilateral talks on April 27.
An official source said Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar was coming to discuss bilateral trade issues that had been on the halt since the suspension of the composite dialogue between the two states after the Mumbai attacks in 2008. The implementation of EU’s trade concessions for Pakistan remain on a halt since the last four months as South Asian neighbours, Bangladesh and India, both have opposed granting concessions to Pakistan at the meeting of the WTO Council for Trade in Goods in Geneva on March 21.
Their opposition had previously delayed their implementation from January 1 to April 1, 2011. “Khullar is arriving at a crucial time as the WTO General Council will be taking up the issue of $1 billion EU trade concessions to Pakistan on May 3. We will be stressing that they should support the concession package as it will not affect their trade,” the source said, adding that the concessions could be implemented if only approved with consensus.
Pakistan is of the view that the provision of a concessional trade package to any natural disaster-hit country was not against the norms, as the US provided a similar concession to Haiti after the devastating earthquake. India has been opposing the package, claiming that the concessions would not be beneficial to the flood-affected population.
On bilateral trade issues, the source said they would be taking up the issue of non-tariff barriers on the Indian side that have halted Pakistani exports, even though India had given a most favoured nation status to Pakistan.
