The Third Round of Pakistan-India talks on Economic and Commercial
Cooperation within the framework of the Composite Dialogue was held
on March 28-29, 2006 at Islamabad.
The Pakistan delegation was led by Secretary, Ministry of Commerce,
Syed Asif Shah and the Indian delegation was led by Commerce
Secretary, Shri S.N. Menon.
The talks were held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere. The
two sides recognized the satisfactory progress on the initiatives
agreed during the Second Round of the talks held in New Delhi on
August 9-10, 2005. It was emphasized that the new Shipping Agreement
would be signed in the near future at New Delhi; and the talks on
Air Services Agreement would be concluded expeditiously.
The two sides agreed on the following:
• In line with the announcement of the Prime Minister of Pakistan on
his visit to India in November 2004, to open branches of scheduled
banks in each country, the central banks would process applications
by banks expeditiously.
• To facilitate import of tea from India, both sides would encourage
delegations of importers/exporters of tea to visit respective
countries. It was also felt that after the new Shipping Agreement
comes into effect, import of tea from India would be facilitated
further.
• To identify the problems of transportation of goods by train
between India and Pakistan, the relevant Ministries of both sides
had a meeting on the sidelines of the talks. It was decided that
they would continue their dialogue.
• Pakistan and India would constitute a Working Group to discuss the
issues relating to joint registration of Basmati rice SGI.
• Pakistan would consider enlarging the list of importable items
from India in consultation with stakeholders and after fulfilling
legal and procedural requirements.
• India will provide detailed proposals for trade in IT-enabled
medical services and export insurance cooperation for consideration
by Pakistan.
It was noted with satisfaction that the laying of optical fibre on
the Indian side would be completed in the near future.
It was also noted that the initiative on liberalization of visa
regime would be discussed in the relevant segment of the Composite
Dialogue.
The Indian proposal to convene a meeting of the relevant technical
level experts at the Attari-Wagah Border to draw up proposals to
upgrade infrastructure to facilitate trade including export of
transit cargo of Afghanistan, was noted by Pakistan.
An MOU on Assistance of Mutual Cooperation in Capital Markets has
been conveyed by Pakistan SECP to their counterpart in India. It was
agreed that India would communicate its response soon.
Both sides welcomed the ratification of SAFTA Agreement by all SAARC
Member Countries and expressed the confidence that it would enhance
regional trade.
Islamabad
March 29, 2006
