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New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will review India’s unilateral granting of the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) status to Pakistan under the WTO rules.
A meeting to this effect will be held on Thursday and will be attended by top officials of the government, including Commerce and External Affairs, top sources in the government said. The review comes amid a clamour to take action against the country in the backdrop of the September 18 Uri attack.
India granted the MFN status to Pakistan in 1996. Pakistan has not given a similar status to India.
The MFN status to Pakustan was accorded in 1996 under WTO’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). According to Assocham, out of India’s total merchandise trade of $641 billion in 2015-16, Pakistan accounted for a meagre $2.67 billion. India’s exports to the neighbouring country worked out to $2.17 billion, or 0.83 per cent, of the total Indian outward shipments while imports were less than $500 million, or 0.13 per cent, of the total inward shipments. “In all, trade with Pakistan was equivalent to 0.41 per cent of India’s global merchandise commerce,” Assocham secretary general DS Rawat said in the statement. “The MFN status, or no MFN, has not made much of a difference on the bilateral trade,” he said. “While India has granted Pakistan the MFN status, Islamabad had not responded. But even with the MFN status, Pakistan’s exports to India remained less than half a billion dollars,” he added.
The major items of Indian export to Pakistan include organic chemicals, vegetables, cotton, plastics and processed food waste, like fodder.