Pakistani businessmen welcome the government’s move to give MFN to India

Pakistani businessmen welcome the government’s move to give MFN to India

Businessmen from all across the country have welcomed the move of the Government of Pakistan to give the status of ‘Most Favourable Nation’ (MFN) to India as far as the economy and trade are concerned.

There is a school of thought in Pakistan which is extremely against this step taken by the government as it feels that it is going to hamper the small industry in Pakistan because of the huge market on offer by India.

Other than that, the people against MFN claim that the root-causes between the dispute between India and Pakistan, Kashmir and water issue are still unsolved and there are dead-locks on that and they believe that until the two countries resolve their issues,
no relation will be solid and long-term.  

Approximately 70 Pakistani businessmen, who are attending the Annual India International Trade Fair (IITF) have expressed that the move by the Pakistani government is going to give a huge boost to Pakistan’s economy.   

At the present moment, there are a number of hurdles like visa problems and taxes for Pakistani and Indian businessmen to do mutual trade. However, the delegation of the Pakistani tradesmen believes that situation will ameliorate sooner rather than later.

Nasir ud din Sheikh, Pakistan pavilion director and chairman, standing committee on fairs and exhibitions of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said, "There is a lot of optimism in Pakistan about granting of MFN status to India.
The business and industry establishments have all welcomed the move. Our trade lacks growth because of barriers like visa, freight restrictions through the border post. The status on both sides would provide a push to remove these restrictions."

While mentioning some of the problems faced by two countries in the recent past, Sheikh said that bilateral trade is going to eradicate these problems and as a result, the prices of some consumer goods and commodities is going to come down naturally and
it is going to benefit the people on both sides of the border.

"Earlier you had a shortfall of onions that came from Pakistan, this time we have a shortfall of red chillies that is coming from India. We have a surplus of cement and cotton that we can sell to India at the cheapest prices in comparison to anywhere in
the world. So this (MFN) is good for all," he added.

It remains to be seen that for how long this period of romanticism is going to last between the two countries, which have had a troubled history.

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Posted by Yasir Hashmi on Nov 17 2011. Filed under Pakistan, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry