February 18, 2019: Secretary General (Federal) FPCCI Businessmen Panel, Ahmad Jawad on Monday said Indian decision to revoke Most Favored Nation (MFN) status for Pakistan would little effect the national economy as these trade privileges never benefitted us.
He said bilateral trade between the two neighbors remained largely in favor of India and despite being granted the MFN status in 1996, Pakistan was never essentially helped to avail the relevant opportunities.
Mentioning that MFN besides, lowest possible trade tariffs and least possible trade barriers also guarantees highest import quotas, he said these were never fulfilled and consequently Pakistan's exports to India stood at US$480 million.
“This should also be of no surprise to realize that the total volume of India-Pakistan trade increased marginally to US$2.41 billion in 2017-2018 as against US$2.27 billion in 2016-17,” said the senior member of country's business community.
Ahmad Jawad reiterated that recent decision of India, taken under pretext of a reaction to recent incident in Indian occupied Kashmir, was reflective of its discomfort towards growing global participation in CPEC and different other investment projects initiated in Pakistan.
“International acknowledgment of Pakistan's relevance and its failure to corner Pakistan in the international community has compelled India to dent Pakistan's interest in every possible manner,” he said.
In particular context of MFN status, Jawad mentioned that it was a treatment accorded to a trade partner to ensure non-discriminatory trade between two countries vis-a-vis other trade partners.
“The importance of MFN could be gauged from the fact that it is the first clause in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and under WTO rules, a member country cannot discriminate between its trade partners,” said the business leader reminding unilateral decisions taken by India was against the international trade spirit.
To a query, he elaborated that once a special status is granted to a trade partner, it must be extended to all members of the WTO, but unfortunately this was never seen.
“This is despite the fact that our private sector wanted to establish proper trade relations with India on equal footings which was never reciprocated by the other side,” he said.
BMP Official with regard to visit of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) said this signaled relevance of Pakistan as a potential investment and trade destination for investors and businessman from around the world.
“Gwadar Port was offering huge opportunities in terms of regional and global connectivity and had made Pakistan an attractive destination for the whole world”, he said in reply to a query.
The business leader of the country appreciated that one of the top priorities of Prime Minister Imran Khan was to bring foreign investment to the country and enhance trade ties with all potential regions, including the Middle Eastern countries.
(APP)
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