By IANS
New Delhi : India and Pakistan Wednesday decided to expand their trade basket to include cement and tea and to open bank branches in each other's country – key steps that are likely to help them achieve an ambitious trade target of $10 billion by 2010.
India also agreed to address trade imbalance by offering to relax its import regime for 20 Pakistani products and asked Pakistan to identify the products of export interest.
"Both sides agreed to finalise the processing of the applications for the two bank branches in either country within six months of the receipt of applications or by Dec 31 or whichever is earlier," said a joint statement at the end of two-day talks between Indian Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Asif Shah.
State Bank of India and Bank of India would open branches in Pakistan. United Bank and National Bank of Pakistan are expected to open branches here.
The cities where these banks will open branches have not been decided yet, said Pillai, adding that Karachi and New Delhi could be the chosen destination of these banks.
"Trade between India and Pakistan is increasing and both sides have agreed to leverage the bilateral trade relation between both the countries to the level of $10 billion by 2010 from the current level of $1.6 billion," Pillai told reporters after the fourth round of talks on economic and commercial cooperation.
The Pakistani side shared the enthusiasm. "The target of $10 billion is definitely achievable and both the sides have agreed that joint secretaries from both countries would meet to review the implementation of the joint statement," said the Pakistani commerce secretary.
India said it was keen to import cement from Pakistan due to a massive deficit and agreed to complete all statutory certification and related formalities quickly.
"The amount of cement to be exported has not been decided. However, two cement factory owners have come to me with their request to export cement to India," said Shah.
Pakistan reciprocated and agreed to facilitate and encourage the trading of tea through rail. The Pakistani side noted the request for providing duty concessions on import of Indian state, the joint statement said.
The two sides, however, failed to achieve a breakthrough over the issue of patent rights of basmati rice.
"The Pakistan side raised the issue of notification issued by India declaring Super Basmati Rice as an approved variety for export. India agreed to look into this issue," said the joint statement.
"The Super Basmati was evolved in Pakistan in the 1960s and has been registered there. We have been marketing it globally since the 1990s," said Shah while defending Pakistan's position.
The Indian side would also be forming a task force comprising representatives from various ministries to address the issues of non-tariff barriers and para-tariffs and make recommendations in a time-bound manner to remove these obstacles to provide greater access to all SAARC countries.
The India delegation has also handed over a list of 484 tariff lines for inclusion in the positive list of items importable from India, which Pakistan has agreed to examine in consultation with the stakeholders.
"The Indian side has also made a presentation on the state of development of integrated check-post planned to be developed at Wagah/Attari broder at the India side," the statement said
Pakistan has, however, indicated that its ban on wheat imports from India will continue as it wants to maintain its strategic reserves.