New Delhi, July 31

India has forwarded a list of more importable items to Pakistan from India called Positive List in order to intensify economic engagement and boost bilateral trade volume from $1.7 billion to higher level and to plug the current wider scope for diverted trade through third countries.

At the two-day Indo-Pak meeting on economic and commercial cooperation under the framework of composite dialogue that began here on Tuesday, the Commerce Secretary, Mr Gopal K. Pillai, said that while India’s exports to Pakistan amounted to $13,487.32 million in 2006-07, Pakistan’s exports to India amounted to $323.19 million.

“If we add the informal trade and the trade taking place through third countries the figures are much larger. There is a strong case for us to see how we mainstream this diverted trade and reduce transaction costs to ultimately benefit the consumer on either side.”

In this context, Mr Pillai underlined the need to introspect by “taking a look at our respective production and demand baskets and identify products for bilateral trade”.

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