Pakistani scholars call for MFN status for India
Islamabad, Jan. 31 : Pakistani scholars at a seminar have said that the country should grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India considering that it is signatory to the World Trade Organisation trade agreement.
The scholars were attending a seminar on 'Pakistan-India Trade Cooperation'.
Dr Kamal Monnoo, member of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) Board of Governors and an economics scholar, said that trade liberalisation would speed up normalisation. He said that cheap consumer imports from India could help tame inflation at home, reports The Express Tribune.
Dr Monnoo stated that economic interdependence of bilateral trade relations between Pakistan and India would not only be beneficial for the countries' economies but also expedite steps towards peace.
Dr Zafar Mahmood from PIDE, Quaid-i-Azam University, added that Pakistan and India enjoyed MFN status from 1948 to 1965. The status, he said, would be beneficial for Pakistan in revenue generation, improved competitiveness, FDI inflows, BOP improvement and surge in intra-industry trade.
Dr Mahmood said Pakistan should not adopt defensive economic policies and ask India to remove Pakistan-centric non-tariff measures. He concluded that bilateral trade relations by entering into a trade cooperation agreement with India would help in expanding the existing industrial strength of Pakistan.