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India and Pakistan have agreed that a joint group of experts would hold its first meeting before January regarding trade in petroleum products.
Besides, the two countries have come to a broad understanding on possible grid connectivity between Amritsar and Lahore to enable trade of up to 500 MW of power.
These were part of the joint statement issued by the two countries on Tuesday after talks between the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar, and his Pakistani counterpart Mr Zafar Mahmood.
The statement said, “It is expected that the group of experts will reach a final understanding on grid connectivity (between both the countries) at this meeting (in December).”
Both sides also agreed to continue efforts to remove impediments to bilateral investments. They also agreed to push for further liberalisation of the business visa arrangements.
New Delhi also welcomed the decision taken by Pakistan to accord Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India and to the mandate given for full normalisation of the bilateral trade relations.
New trade regime
On developing infrastructure for trade through the Attari-Wagah land route, they agreed that all infrastructure construction would be completed and trade be made fully operational by February. This timeline would coincide with Pakistan's announcement of a small negative list of items.
All items other than those on the negative list shall be freely exportable from India to Pakistan. The new trading regime will be applicable to all trade through the land route after the infrastructure at Attari-Wagah is commissioned.
It was also agreed that software body Nasscom will co-ordinate with Pakistan Software Export Development Board to facilitate a road show for Pakistani IT companies at Bangalore, Hyderabad and other Indian IT hubs in February.
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