Pakistan plans to rethink trade relations with India

Pakistan Foreign Minister says businessmen in his country approached him on restarting trade; Amritsar traders welcome move; Jaishankar says India in ‘no mood’ to overlook issue of terrorism

akistan will “seriously examine” whether to restart trade with India, said its newly appointed Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar. Responding to questions during a press meet in London, Mr. Dar said he had been approached last year by Pakistani businesspersons over the issue, and said any decision would follow a full discussion with all stakeholders.

Meanwhile, visiting Singapore, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar hit out at Pakistan for its “industrylevel” support to terrorism, stressing that any talks with Pakistan would need to “face up to the problem”.

In 2019, both India and Pakistan had taken trade measures against each other — after the Pulwama bombing in February, India had withdrawn the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan and raised tariffs on all trade multifold; after India’s Article 370 moves in Jammu and Kashmir in Au

Pgust 2019, Pakistan had suspended direct trade ties with India amidst a number of other diplomatic measures.

The closure of trade had mostly affected businessmen and transporters engaged at the AttariWagah land border. On Sunday, the Amritsarbased chamber of commerce expressed hope that a rethink would follow after the Pakistani Foreign Minister’s comments, calling on New Delhi to reciprocate.

“What India did in 2019, the steps they took to amend the constitution and law, that was very painful,” said Mr. Dar, speaking in London on Saturday, where he referred to UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. “But I think the business community of Pakistan is very keen [to restart trade]. When I presented the budget as Finance Minister last year, businessmen pointed out that the imports [from India] are coming in even today — they come via Dubai or via Singapore and involve higher freight, transshipment and other transportation costs,” he added.

No comment

The Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on Mr. Dar’s remarks. Speaking at the National University in Singapore at an event about his book, Why Bharat Matters, Mr. Jaishankar said that in India, the “mood is not to overlook” terrorism.

“It’s not a oneoff pening...but very hapsustained, almost at an industry level, an assembly line of people whose job it is to do bad things [terror],” Mr. Jaishankar had said on Saturday, responding to a question about bilateral ties with Pakistan. “India will not skirt this problem anymore. We are not going to say... [terrorism] happened, [but] let’s continue our dialogue because that’s very important… We must be honest enough to face up to that problem, however difficult it is.”

Speaking to The Hindu, the Amritsarbased Director of the Confederation of International Chamber of Commerce and Industry “welcomed” Mr. Dar’s initiatives for discussions on restarting trade and said the suspension had left the Integrated Check Point at Attari built at considerable investment “idle”.

“We strongly urge the Indian government to react with positive intent as normal economic activity would be mutually beneficial to both the nations,” businessman Ashok Sethi said.

(With inputs from Vikas Vasudeva in Chandigarh)

What India did in 2019, the steps they took to amend the constitution and law [abrogation of Article 370], that was very painful

MOHAMMAD ISHAQ DAR Pakistani Foreign Minister