This Article is From Nov 21, 2015

No Proposal Under Consideration to Grant Most Favoured Nation Status to India: Pakistan

No Proposal Under Consideration to Grant Most Favoured Nation Status to India: Pakistan

File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif.

Islamabad: There is no proposal under consideration to give India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, Pakistan Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said in the National Assembly on Friday.

He said the "existence of a negative list was a clear indication that the MFN status had not been given to India", Dawn newspaper reported.

Mr Khan also said that since Modi government took over last year, no bilateral trade talks had taken place.

On non-tariff barriers, he said that these were dealt with on a case-to-case basis with India.

He said the positive list had been transformed into the negative list, adding that 150 Indian items were being imported through the Wagah border.

"There must be a debate in this house on whether we want to link trade with security issues of Pakistan."

The minister said that being a member of the World Trade Organisation, Pakistan raised its security concerns at international forums when it came to trade with India.

India granted the MFN status to Pakistan in 1996 but Pakistan is yet to reciprocate to that. Grant of status to India would help in further boosting trade between the countries.
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