–Ministry of Commerce awaits MoFA’s final decision to reciprocate New Delhi’s actions
–Finance minister says Indian govt’s immaturity will inflict damages to its own economy
ISLAMABAD: Despite New Delhi increasing customs duty on all goods imported from Pakistan to 200 per cent following the Pulwama attack, Islamabad is in no haste to retaliate the trade restrictions, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to sources, the Ministry of Commerce has completed its homework for responding to India after the enhancement of duty that has nearly halted Pakistan’s exports to the neighbouring country; however, it is waiting for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MoFA) decision on the matter.
“We can reciprocate Indian actions but the final decision to this extent will be made later,” a Commerce Ministry official told this scribe.
According to the official, the ministry has worked out a plan to restrict around 100 items from India by including them to its negative list which could lead to New Delhi losing worth over $500 million in exports to Pakistan.
“Islamabad may also restrict Indian exports to Afghanistan under transit trade agreement in the name of inspection of goods,” they said.
During the talks for trade liberalisation in 2012, Pakistan had agreed to include a number of items to the positive list allowing more imports from India without even extending the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status.
Pakistan had not extended the MFN status to India till the removal of Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) imposed by New Delhi due to which the country has never been substantially able to grab the Indian market.
According to officials, India, after the restrictions, will be the biggest loser as the bilateral trade between the two nuclear states stands at just $2.183 billion out of which imports from India are at $1.8 billion and exports from Pakistan are at $350 million.
Following the Indian trade restrictions, the export of fresh fruits, cement, petroleum products and mineral ore to the neighbouring country has almost been stopped. The decision would significantly decrease Pakistan’s exports to India, which stood at $488.5 million in 2017-18.
Soon after the Pulwama incident last week, India had announced to withdraw Pakistan’s MFN status; slapping an import duty of 200 per cent which is tantamount to banning Pakistani imports altogether.
The two main items exported to India are fruits and cement, on which the customs duty was 30-50 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.
According to sources at the Finance Ministry, the government is in no hurry to respond to Indian restitutions. Finance Minister Asad Umar, however, said that exports to India, following the restrictions would suffer.
He said the steps taken by India demonstrated its immaturity that would be more harmful to its own economy.
“The inappropriate and unwise decisions of the Indian government on trade with Pakistan will inflict damages to its own economy instead of causing any losses to Pakistan,” the minister said.
