In retaliation to the terror attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government has vowed to give the neighbouring country a “befitting reply”
India, she said, had extended the MFN status to Pakistan as a "goodwill gesture" way back in 1996 but unfortunately the neighbouring country has not yet extended the same to New Delhi.
India today said it will review the Most Favoured Nation status granted to Pakistan by it based on the security and trade interests, asserting that terror cannot be the commodity exported.
The decisions to review the MFN, which was granted by India unilaterally in 1996, comes in the wake of the Uri attack over which India is weighing options to respond.
The PPP government had decided in March last year to switch over from positive list of about 1,900 tradable items to a negative list of about 1,206 items, thereby allowing about 5,000 items to be traded between the two countries.
The Pakistani government is expected to bring out a notification next month allowing import of certain goods, including petrol and food items from India, Energy Secretary Ejaz Chaudhry said on Friday.
Although currently bilateral trade between India and Pakistan stands at a meagre USD 2.7 billion annually, there is hope that this could double in the next three-four years, reports CNBC-TV18's Rituparna Bhuyan.
Pakistan today agreed to open its market for over 7,000 items from India in the next three months and promised to grant New Delhi crucial most favoured nation (MFN) status by 2012 end.
The India-Pakistan Commerce Secretary-level talks began here today, with the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) issue among the main agenda items of the parleys that seek to normalise bilateral trade relations.
Declaring that time has come to write a "new chapter" in the history of two countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today decided that India will move towards Preferential Trade Agreement with Pakistan as both sides agreed that bilateral trade will be conducted on Most Favoured Nation (MFN) basis.
This episode of India Tonight discusses Pakistan's decision to grant India the most favoured nation status and how this will change trade relations?
Pakistan's decision to grant the much sought-after MFN status to India can lead to multi-fold increase in the bilateral trade of USD 2.6 billion, industry said today.