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Islamabad, Nov 21: There is no proposal under consideration to give India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, Pakistan Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has said. The Minister said this in the National Assembly yesterday 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 newspaper reported.(Read: Tricolour upside down as Narendra Modi, Shinzo Abe shake hands before bilateral)
Khan also said that since Modi government took over last year, 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 to that. Grant of status to India would help in further boosting trade between the countries.
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