Pakistan will table a list of 233 sensitive items under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) before the Indian trade authorities during the two-day commerce secretary-level trade talks scheduled to begin on Monday. An 11-member delegation, headed by Federal Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood, left Lahore for New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the modalities of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status that Pakistan recently granted to India. Mahmood told reporters at Allama Iqbal International Airport that Islamabad would strongly persuade New Delhi to remove trade barriers for Pakistani merchandise. He said the federal government had given the go-ahead to the Commerce Ministry to liberalise trade between the two neighbouring countries. He said further that during the session the two sides would discuss ways and means to increase bilateral trade from the current level of $2.7 billion to $6 billion per year within the next three years. Issues related to non-tariff and para-tariff barriers were also on the agenda, he added.
