India, Pakistan to open new gate for trade by April-end

A dedicated gate at the Attari-Wagah border to facilitate movement of goods between India and Pakistan will open by the end of April this year, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma announced yesterday.“Works are complete. We are going to see that. I want to assure you that by 30th April this gate will be ready and then it will be opened for trade,” Sharma said at a joint media briefing here with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Mohamed Amin Fahim.Both the ministers said they were hopeful of increasing bilateral trade.The Pakistan commerce minister, accompanied by an 80-member business delegation, had visited India in September last year.During that visit, the two ministers had agreed to increase two-way trade to $6bn in three years from $2.7bn recorded in 2010-11.This time, Sharma is leading the largest Indian business delegation to Pakistan, comprising of chief executives of over 100 Indian companies. India’s business delegation includes executives from its leading wireless company and its largest domestic airline.Sharma will hold talks tomorrow with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Amin Fahim in Islamabad to review the progress in normalising trade relations.“This is a major step towards deepening economic engagement between India and Pakistan,” Sharma said at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday before leaving for Pakistan. “We will discuss all aspects of economic engagement and it is our hope that by taking economic relations to a higher level we will be creating an environment of trust and confidence.”India aims by 2015 to double commerce with its neighbour from $2.7bn in the fiscal year that ended March 31. Pakistan in November granted India Most Favored Nation status, its biggest step to facilitate cross-border trade since peace talks stalled by the 2008 Mumbai attack resumed last year.Among those traveling with Sharma during the three-day, three-city visit are Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways India Ltd, and Rajan Bharti Mittal, managing director at Bharti Enterprises Ltd, which partners Wal-Mart Stores Inc in India, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.Sunil Kant Munjal, whose family controls Hero Motocorp Ltd, India’s biggest motorcycle company, is also part of the delegation, the Confederation of Indian Industry said in a separate statement in New Delhi.“This is probably the largest ever trade delegation India has sent to Pakistan,” said Dipankar Banerjee, an analyst at the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. While the trip will foster better relations, trade between the two nations won’t reach its potential “unless there is a major boost in infrastructure construction and removal of non-tariff barriers,” Banerjee said.India’s government on Feb 7 predicted gross domestic product will rise 6.9% in the 12 months through March from a year earlier, the least since 2009 as the global recovery falters. The $1.7tn economy, Asia’s third largest, also faces pressure from budget and trade deficits, and policy gridlock inhibiting investment.Pakistan’s $175bn economy grew 2.4% in the year through June 2011, one of the smallest expansions in a decade, as floods, militant attacks and rolling power blackouts fueled prices rises, drove out investment and closed factories.An $11.3bn International Monetary Fund loan to Pakistan expired in September, with disbursements suspended in May 2010 after the country failed to meet conditions attached to it. The lender forecasts Pakistan’s GDP will rise 3.4% in this fiscal year.The display of Indian interest in boosting economic ties is a “good sign,” said Khalid Tawab, vice-president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry. The volume of trade that is routed through third countries should fall, Tawab said.In Lahore, the Indian delegation attended a trade fair where 400 Indian manufacturers are showcasing products ranging from jewellery and cosmetics to auto parts.