World Bank Report Says India-Pakistan Hostility Costs $35 Billion-Worth Bilateral Trade
The bilateral trade between Islamabad and New Delhi currently stands at $2 billion per annum. This could be escalated up to $37 billion if the governments of India and Pakistan remove the 'artificial barriers', WB said.
New Delhi, Sept 25: A latest report released by the World Bank has flagged a potential loss of $35 billion in terms of bilateral trade between India and Pakistan due to the rivalry between the two nations.
The report, titled 'A Glass Half Full: The Promise of Regional Trade in South Asia', recommends Islamabad and New Delhi to shed the hostility on trade front to achieve the mutual goal of eliminating poverty and unemployment.
The bilateral trade between Islamabad and New Delhi currently stands at $2 billion per annum. This could be escalated up to $37 billion if the governments of India and Pakistan remove the "artificial barriers", the report said.
The lack of normal bilateral trade relations between the two countries affects the formation or deepening of regional value-chains in various high-value trading sectors, Dawn newspaper reported quoting the report.
Pakistan has a list of 936 items and almost 17.9 per cent of tariff lines that apply to imports from all South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) countries. India maintains a list of 25 items (0.5 per cent of tariff lines), which includes goods such as alcohol, firearms, etc.
In addition, the preferential access granted by Pakistan on 82.1 per cent of tariff lines under SAFTA is partially blocked in the case of India because Pakistan maintains a negative list comprising 1,209 items that cannot be imported from India.
In practice, many of these items are exported from India to Pakistan through a third country, usually the United Arab Emirates. The report says another barrier to bilateral trade is the proliferation of NTMs (non-tariff measures), some of which take the form of non-tariff barriers, such as port restrictions.
Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan, in his first address, had stressed on revamping the trade ties with New Delhi. "I am that Pakistani who believes that the economic development of South Asia is only possible after an impetus is given to India-Pakistan trade," he said.
Making an effort to resolve the hostility, Khan pitched for a foreign ministerial-level dialogue on the sidelines of UNGA. India, after accepting the proposal on Thursday, retracted on Friday citing the killing soldiers in Jammu & Kashmir by Pakistani forces.
(With agency inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 25, 2018 07:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).