Pakistan Commerce and Trade Minister Makhdoom Amin Faheem will arrive in India on September 25 to hold high-level talks with Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on taking the bilateral trade and strategic economic cooperation to a new level, including working on easing visa restrictions for businessmen from both sides.
Mr. Fahim will reach New Delhi on September 25 on a six-day visit at the invitation of Mr. Sharma. Both trade ministers are likely to hold a number of sessions during the six-day talks. These are a follow up of the Secretary level talks held in Islamabad in April. Mr. Fahim is expected to be accompanied by a large six delegation comprising the business community of Pakistan, including representatives of various chambers of commerce in Pakistan. This will be the first meeting between the trade and commerce ministers of the two countries after a three-year gap. As Pakistan has already expressed its desire to ‘positively' consider granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, Mr. Fahim is expected to make an announcement in this regard during the talks. Pakistan has also announced its intention to move over from the positive list the to negative list as far as trade with India is concerned. At present, Pakistan has given access to 1,940 product lines on its positive list and has 12,000 on the negative list. But half of the items on the positive list are not exported by India or it imports these items.