Pakistan and India will discuss the import of petroleum products and transit fee for the Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline on March 23-24 in New Delhi. An official source said that a Pakistani official delegation led by Secretary Petroleum Ejaz Chaudhary would be visiting India on March 23 and 24 to attend and international oil and gas conference. On the side lines of the conference, the two countries will be holding talks on the import of petroleum products and the transit fee for the TAPI pipeline, he added. Pakistan’s official delegation’s visit to India has gained immense importance, as the United States and the European Union are making efforts to discourage Iranian oil trade as part of their efforts to force Tehran into suspending its alleged nuclear weapons programme. Iran has recently offered energy strapped Pakistan oil in exchange for food supplies. Both the countries are discussing barter trade as under international sanctions normal trade could not be carried out with Iran.
India has offered to export gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and fuel oil besides sulphur, polyethylene and polypropylene to Pakistan, that will save freight costs as several Indian refineries are located close to the border between the countries. Indian refineries are ready to conduct feasibility study for product pipelines to Pakistan provided they receive long-term guarantees for product purchases.
Struggling Pak economy can grow with more trade with India: WB
For Pakistan’s economic growth, it is important for the country to have more trade with India, a top World Bank official has said. Welcoming the recent move by India and Pakistan to initiate steps to improve business and trade ties, Isabel Guerrero, World Bank Vice President for the South Asia region, said this is crucial for the struggling Pakistan economy.
“I think it (improved Indo-Pak trade) is crucial. I am so happy to see that this is happening, because it could not have come at a better moment,” the PTI quoted Guerrero as saying.
“I think Pakistan’s macro-economic situation, where they have low tax revenue and high expenditure, budget deficit the only way for Pakistan to get out of it is to grow. They have to grow out of this macro problem,” Guerrero said.
Observing that Pakistan is strategically located between two Asian economic giants, India and China, which are the fastest growing countries in the world, she said why Pakistan is not having growth is a big question now.
“Trade is the answer (to this question),” she said. “If Pakistan can have more trade with India, it would have a huge impact … first of all in the bilateral relations, but also for Pakistan’s growth. That is the answer to get out of the low equilibrium through high growth,” Guerrero said.
Right now, she said, there is trade happening between Pakistan and India, except that it goes through Dubai.
As a result of which the transport cost incurred are huge, she said, adding that this would disappear with the normalisation of trade relationship between the two countries.
The World Bank official welcomed recent decision of the Pakistani Cabinet to do away with the negative list. So from next year, the number of Indian products that could be traded with Pakistan would jump three times from the current about 2,000 to some 6,500 items. The objective is to double bilateral trade in three years, Guerrero said.
“I think, it would be more than that if all these things are implemented,” she added.
