The Hindu Business Line : Pak refusal to extend tariff sops to figure at Dhaka

India said that the refusal of tariff concessions under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) by Islamabad would be taken up for discussion at the SAARC Foreign Affairs Council meeting to be held next month, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Replying to the question during the question hour, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, said that though India and Pakistan issued customs notification for tariff concessions effective July 1, 2006, Pakistan's customs notification for phased tariff liberalisation programme (TLP) has a "rider" that it would be subject to the Islamabad's Import Policy Order.

Positive List

He said that as per the Import Policy Order, imports into Pakistan from India are restricted to the items in a positive list issued by the Commerce Ministry of Pakistan, which currently consists of only 773 items. Since all member States of the SAFTA including Pakistan ratified the SAFTA without any reservations, the notification of the Pakistan Government of maintaining positive list through its import policy order is against the "letter and spirit of the SAFTA" agreement. He said that India has already written to the SAARC Secretary General to convene the SAFTA Ministerial Council to resolve the issue with Pakistan.

Sri Lanka

Mr Nath said that as per information from the SAARC Secretariat, Sri Lanka has not been able to implement the TLP on the agreed date, as the Parliament of Sri Lanka is yet to pass the revenue protection Order.

The information about issue of customs notification by Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal has not been received as yet from the SAARC secretariat.

Mr Nath also denied that under tariff concessions, India's trade would be hit. He cited figures to show that India has been enjoying trade surplus with countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka running into more than a billion of US dollars during 2005-06.

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