ISLAMABAD - Minister of Commerce, Makhdoom Amin Fahim informed the Lower House of the Parliament here on Thursday that Pakistan did not so far grant the Most Favoured Nation’s status (MFN) to India, though the Government of Pakistan was in process of normalising trade relation with it.“However, this process cannot be termed as having granted MFN status to India,” the minister informed the Nation Assembly in response in his written reply in response to a question asked by one the lawmakers. The House was informed that complete normalization of trade with India would be kept in place culminating into granting MFN status to India after the it would meet conditions through necessary measures and the Cabinet would give approval in this regard.The minister said that Ministry of Commerce had sequenced the process of normalization of trade relations with India “As a first step, Negative List of 1209 tariff lines has been notified. The phasing out of Negative List by 31st December 2012 is also conditional to provision of level playing field for Pakistani exporters by Indian”, he further said in his written reply. The House was also informed that India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996.According to the minister’s written reply, since India has market, which is ten times larger than Pakistan, this gives a tremendous scope, as Pakistani exports would have ten times more potential buyers than what we offer to Indian exports. Pakistani exports would have a wide variety of buyers in a single country. Then there is the advantage of raw material to be imported from India at low cost and with minimum transportation charges. This will enable the country’s manufactures to save a lot and spend this saved capital on improving the efficiency and skill of the local industry. The beneficiary of trade between India and Pakistan will be the consumer, as this trade will provide relief from pressure of inflation.

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