Pakistan in no mood to grant MFN status to India yet

India granted the MFN status to Pakistan in 1996 but Pakistan is yet to reciprocate.

November 21, 2015 01:02 pm | Updated November 26, 2021 10:24 pm IST - Islamabad

There is no proposal under consideration to give India the Most Favoured Nation status, Pakistan Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has said.

The Minister said this in the National Assembly on Friday while responding to a question.

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

Mr. Khan also said that since Modi government took over in 2014, no bilateral trade talks had taken place.

About 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.

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