On Wednesday, Pakistan’s top economic body, the Economic Coordination Committee, announced its decision to revoke a ban on the import of sugar and cotton from India. Once approved by the Pakistani Cabinet, the decision will effectively reverse an embargo on Indian imports, which was imposed following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
While making the announcement, Pakistani Finance Minister Hammad Azhar said that the move would help the country bring down the surging domestic prices of the goods, specifically due to the lower prices in India. India is also the world’s largest producer of cotton and the second-biggest producer of sugar, and allowing the imports of these products into Pakistani markets will be highly beneficial for Pakistan’s small and medium enterprises, which have been facing severe shortages of raw materials. On the other hand, the decision will also be beneficial for merchants and farmers in Punjab, who have always maintained cordial trade relations with Pakistan.
Ties between India and Pakistan have been deteriorating for some time now, which has naturally impacted trade between the countries. Following the Uri attack in Jammu and Kashmir and the consequent retaliation by the Indian army in 2016, bilateral trade between the countries took a severe hit; Indian exports to Pakistan dropped by 16%, falling from $2.17 billion to ~$1.82 billion. Moreover, in 2019, Islamabad suspended trade relations with New Delhi as a result of the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, which further impeded trade between the two countries.
While the Indian government is yet to comment on Pakistan’s Wednesday announcement, the People’s Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir welcomed the decision, saying that the improvement of relations between the two countries was important for the “restoration of durable peace in the subcontinent.”
In fact, the resumption of trade is the latest push towards the improvement of relations between the two sides. Earlier this week, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan responded to a letter by his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, thanking him for his wishes on Pakistan Day. Prime Minister Modi had written to Khan on March 23 to mark the occasion of Pakistan Day, and expressed his hope for cordial and peaceful relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals in “an environment of trust devoid of terror and hostility.”
Additionally, last month, India and Pakistan released a joint statement saying that the two countries’ Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMO), Lt Gen Paramjit Singh Sangha and his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Nauman Zakaria, had agreed to a ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) that came into effect at midnight on February 24.
Currently, senior officials from India and Pakistan are also participating in the ninth ministerial conference of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process (HoA-IP), which is aimed at ending the conflict in Afghanistan by seeking regional consensus regarding the country’s stalled peace process, in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe. The meeting is being attended by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar, and the attendance of both leaders at the conference has led to speculation of a possible meeting between the two.
Pakistan Resumes Import of Cotton, Sugar From India
The decision effectively reverses an embargo on Indian imports, which was imposed following the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
April 1, 2021
SOURCE: INDIAN EXPRESS