MoI proposes 239 tariff lines for negative trade list with India

Ministry of Industry (MoI) has proposed 239 tariff lines to be included in the negative list for trade with India, Profit has learnt.
An official document made available to Profit shows the ministry has proposed 12 items from the ceramics sector; four from chemicals, six from cutlery, 11 from domestic appliance, five from jewellery, six from aluminium, nine from paper and paper board, two from plastics, 98 from iron and steel, seven from surgical, 21 from sport goods, 36 from auto sector, 13 from electrical, six from glass, one from footwear and two from machinery, equipment and spare parts, which will be included in the negative list. MoI has recommended 72 tariff lines should be excluded as they have been represented in the SAFTA sensitive list as five are banned in Import Policy Order (IPO) and few of them are not manufactured locally which is why it is not meaningful to include them again.
The ministry is of the view that it is fully cognisant of the multiple benefit implicit in liberalisation, however, in order for such measures to succeed from the point of view of promoting the growth of Pakistan’s economy per second increasing over dwindling employment rate, complimentary measures in terms of assure supply of energy and mark-up at par with regional neighbours is a sine qua non. The industry needs a level playing field, consistency and complementarities in all policies to gain multiplier gains from trade openings.
The negative 636 items prepared by Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has been examined and observations/suggestions are proposed on the basis of parameters. MoC list also contains 77 tariff lines and 16 agriculture tariff lines, which were not considered by MoI and they remained the same.
MoI has adopted criteria for negative list which included industry response (input), Pakistan Global Imports, and Indian Global Exports for making the tariff lines. The tariff lines that are included in SAFTA Sensitive List will only be recommended for the negative list for the very sensitive emerging sectors. The items having five per cent tariff have generally not been included as the industry has requested to allow the raw material to be imported from India to cut down on inputs costs.
Similarly, Ministry of Production (MoP) raises its concerns with ceramics, steel and iron for attention of items in the negative list and to phase out in the next five years. MoP supports the retention of auto sector in negative list as proposed by commerce ministry.
An official of MoI said the tariff lines that were already in positive list but requested by industry to be place in the negative list have not been analysed as per the principle decision of MoC that the positive list will not be altered and tariff lines will not be shifted from it to the negative list under preparation. It was reiterated by MoC in the meetings that positive list will not be altered, he added. The food/agriculture items are included in the negative list with exception of edible oils. Both the countries import edible oils. Therefore, edible oil from India is limited and should be removed, he said.