Pakistan’s recently-appointed finance minister Hammad Azhar on Wednesday declared that the government has decided to permit the import of sugar, cotton and yarn from India.
The recommencement of import of these items will lead to the country’s partial revival of trade relations with India. In August 2019, Pakistan had demoted its trade relationship with India in reaction to New Delhi’s decision to revoke Article 370 of its constitution, which approved J&K special status.
India had not responded to the development until the late evening. Pakistan’s decision to import from India emerges the February ceasefire agreement that had flashed speculation about possible efforts by both countries towards normalising ties. Though even as the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers took part in a multilateral conference in Tajikistan on Tuesday,
the two had not met there. To certify there was no shortage of essential drugs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Pakistan had moved the ban on the import of medicines and raw material from India in May 2020. This was the first move of overturning the whole suspension of trade with India.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is also in command of commerce and textiles, has permitted the summaries of importing goods from India before placing it for approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet.
Speaking to a press conference in Islamabad after chairing a meeting of the ECC, the finance minister said the government had permitted the private segment to import 0.5 million tonnes of sugar from India.
“The price of sugar is much lower in India as compared to Pakistan, so we have decided to reopen sugar trade with the neighbouring country for up to 0.5 million tonnes for the private sector,” the minister said. On the allowance of import of cotton from India, Azhar said there was high demand for it because Pakistan textile’s export has enlarged but last year’s cotton crop was poor.
“The price of the commodity in India is lower than what it is in Pakistan. The import of cotton and yarn through the Wagah border will help meet domestic requirements at reasonable rates,” Azhar said, adding that import of cotton from India for small industries would happen until June.
India is the globe’s biggest producer of cotton and the second-biggest sugar producer. The import of sugar will assist Pakistan to lower its soaring prices ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
