MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India will reportedly negotiate a trade deal afresh as the two previous understandings - in December 2012 by PPP government and in March 2014 by incumbent government - failed to materialize due to Pakistan’s internal politics.

Pakistan’s Commerce Minister, Engineer Khurram Dastgir attended the eighth South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) Ministerial Council meeting in Thimpu (Bhutan) with the hope that he would have a meeting with the Indian Minister of State for Commerce, Nirmala Sitharaman. However, she did not attend the Ministerial Council meeting.

According to sources, Commerce Minister wanted to inquire from the Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Trade whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government will honour the understanding reached on trade normalization between Islamabad and New Delhi in March this year.

Pakistani negotiators maintain that the understanding reached in March 2014 was the culmination of the December 2012 agreement that was finalized by Dr Manmohan Singh-led Indian government, but the BJP-led government is insisting on implementation of the agreement finalized in December 2012.

The PPP government was ready to grant Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India from January 2013 but it failed to implement its commitment due to what is widely believed serious concerns by the establishment. The incumbent government in consultation with the former India government changed the words MFN with NDMA (Non-Discriminatory Market Access) to appease those who had opposed the 2012 agreement.

Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Trade in a written reply to Lok Sabha recently noted that one of the problems is reported to be the Urdu translation of the expression (‘sabse pasandida mulk’) and it is believed that to overcome the psychological barrier, the Pakistanis coined an expression – ‘Non-Discriminatory Market Access’. But even that decision has been postponed, although a roadmap had been chalked out for full normalisation of trade in September 2012.

Sources revealed that while the Indian Secretary of External Affairs Sujatha Singh unambiguously stated during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s visit to India to attend Narindra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony that India will accept the understanding reached in 2012; yet as per a senior official “Indian External Affairs Secretary’s remarks created confusion and Islamabad is trying to remove the confusion.”

According to sources, Pakistan will now take up this issue at the Foreign Secretary level talks to be held on August 25 in Islamabad.

Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Trade maintains that India had granted MFN this status to Pakistan way back in 1996, but Pakistan has not done it so far: ‘‘India and Pakistan have no bilateral trade agreement. India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. Pakistan is yet to reciprocate”.

The sources said if New Delhi does not honour the understanding of March 2014, the deal will be negotiated afresh.