Pakistan has said it will allow import of all items from India once the ongoing election process in the country is over and New Delhi is in a position to implement the “arrangement” for reducing subsidies on some items of export interest to Pakistan.
“Early this year both countries agreed on an arrangement under which India would reduce subsidies on items that can be exported by Pakistan. But it could not be implemented as the model code of conduct came into play,” the Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said in an interaction with members of the Indian Women’s Press Corps on Wednesday.
Basit said once the new Government is in place, the whole issue could be reconsidered.
Extending India non-discriminatory market access, which basically means allowing all Indian items to be sold in Pakistan, is a key condition that New Delhi has laid down before Islamabad for re-starting the bilateral trade dialogue that has been stalled for the past year. Pakistan disallows 1,209 items from India.
India, on the other hand, allows import of all items from its neighbour, but Pakistan alleges that there were a number of non-tariff barriers that impeded imports.
“There are four sectors in Pakistan, namely, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, automobile and textiles, that are apprehensive about competing with India,” the high commissioner said.