The bilateral trade between India and Pakistan amounts to less than one per cent of their respective global trade. R.V.Kanoria, President of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is of the opinion that if trade through other countries (Dubai, Singapore and Central Asian countries) is channelized into direct exchanges between the countries, bilateral trade which currently stands at about $3 billion can be raised to $ 10 billion. To normalize trade ties between the two countries, Industry & Textiles Minister Anand Sharma, along with an 80-member strong delegation will visit Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
During this three day visit (13 -15 February, 2012), the delegation is expected to have meetings with Pakistani CEOs and officials. Amongst many others, Managing Director of Hero Group, Sunil Munjal, Chairman of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal, and Vice – Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises, Rajan Mittal are on the delegation.
While removing trade barriers between the two countries will be central to the talks, discussions will also be held on accelarting the process of granting India the most favoured nation (MFN) status by Pakistan. “Several restrictions on official trade compel both the countries to import certain goods from far off sources which they can easily import from each other,” said Kanoria. There is large potential of trade in services, especially Indian export services like IT and IT enabled services, medical, construction and tourism.