CII Business Delegation to Pakistan
LCCI, CII agree to form committee to sort out all NTBs
Staff Report
LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) have agreed to form a committee to sort out all non-tariff barriers hitting Pak-India trade.
The decision was made at a meeting between LCCI and CII where head of 17-member high-powered CII delegation Kiran Vohra and LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar discussed all the issues threadbare.
The 10-member LCCI-CII committee comprising five members each from Pakistan and India would also look at logistics related issues for smooth flow of goods between the two sides. There was a resolve on both the sides that the committee would influence their respective governments for an early removal of hurdles and hitches impacting upon the two-way trade.
Non-issuance of visas by the Indian side and apprehensions of pharma sector and engineering industry were also debated in detail at the meeting.
Kiran Vohra said there was no second opinion about it that for a win-win situation, Pakistan and India would have to share opportunities. “It is not good for us to find opportunities in Pakistan until we find better opportunities for Pakistan in India.”
Indian private sector is ready to go to any extent to strengthen business community in Pakistan.
Farooq Iftikhar said frequent exchanges of businessmen delegations from both sides clearly indicated private sector representatives of Pakistan and India were very much eager to play their respective roles in promoting direct trade with each other.
He said the size of Indian economy and opening of free trade would relatively pose bigger challenges to our industry. There are considerable differences prevailing in cost of doing business, duty structures, economies of scale etc between Pakistan and India.
There are certain sectors of Pakistan like pharmaceuticals, auto industry and others where open market competition will be highly disadvantageous to us. He said both the sides have to show a lot of maturity in approaching to the idea of increasing regional trade. The intention should be win-win situation for both the nations rather going for cutthroat competition.
At present almost equal quantum of trade is going on between Pakistan and India from third destinations like Dubai, Singapore and Colombo etc. Some kinds of import bans and NTBs are also coming in the way. It increases the cost for nothing in the form of excessive freight, taxes and loss of time.
At present, direct trade volume between Pakistan and India is around $2 billion. The way things are moving ahead we anticipate that trade figures will go as high as $4 to $5 billion in a couple of years. So far as trade potential is concerned, it is estimated to be $10 billion. Considering the above facts, it is a big question mark for us as to how much proportion we will be able to take out of it.
