The Hindu Business Line : ‘Pakistan ‘agreeable’ to trade across LoC’

Trade talk
Pak Commerce Secretary calls to take forward the ‘feeling of openness in trade’.
India says it will do all it can to convince domestic cos to invest in Pak.
Call to make LoC first ‘modest’ step in peace process.

G. Srinivasan

New Delhi, Aug. 2 Pakistan is “agreeable” to India’s suggestion of making 2007 “a year of trade across the border” by allowing trade through the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir on a limited number of goods, the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said here on Thursday.

Talking to Business Line here after his interaction with the Commerce Secretary of Pakistan, Mr Syed Asif Shah, when the latter called on him, Mr Ramesh said that by using trade and investment as an instrument for mutual benefit, bo th the countries could put their political problems on the backburner.

He said that when both President Musharraf and the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, agreed at the highest level to promote peace with free flow of goods, services and people, the LoC trade could be the first modest step.

Trade ‘openness’

Mr Shah said that “there is a feeling of openness in trade and we need to take it forward” and that he would “take home India’s proposal put forth by Mr Ramesh”.

Mr Ramesh said that a trade point in Jammu and Kashmir could begin operating on the lines of the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim and said “if we can open Nathu La for trade with China there is no reason we cannot do the same in Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan.”

When Mr Ramesh sought to ascertain whether the LoC trade route could begin this year, Mr Shah said certain infrastructure facilities need to be rebuilt since many bridges had collapsed in the worst earthquake his country suffered in October 2005.

Call for pacts

Mr Ramesh said that though India and Pakistan have a mutual ban on investing in each other’s country, he had asked Pakistan to come up with serious collaboration proposals in the information technology and textile industry by announcing an investment promotion policy.

India would do everything to convince the domestic companies here to invest in Pakistan to leverage each other’s strengths, he added.

With India assuring Pakistan of simplifying procedures to clear import of cement, Pakistan would help in relieving cement shortages in India as it has excess capacity and exportable surplus, he said.

Tea trade

Mr Ramesh added that the recent meeting at the senior official level also paved the way for using the rail route to trade tea with Pakistan. “India being the largest exporter of tea and Pakistan being the world’s second largest importer of tea, the potentials for tea trade are large,” he said.

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