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bilateral relations

reached Indian port. back. Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, a agenda of Modi led NDA Government it
At the same time, no barriers have prominent vegetable producer and was not reflected in actions. It is so un-
been imposed on exports from In- an exporter from India apprised that fortunate that simple revival of trade
dia to Pakistan by any notification. Pakistan provided a market for potato of with Pakistan can raise incomes of
In short, neither Pakistan nor Indian growing Indian farmers in the wake of farmers in many districts on Indo-Pak
government is losing anything due to surplus production and prevented glut border, but never discussed. This does
the wrong/ incomplete wordings in in domestic market. But three years not need any fresh investment, only in-
the notification but the hapless Indian back Pakistan imposed quarantine tention is required. Instead of doubling,
importers whose cargoes are already restrictions so stringently that consign- the farm incomes have been squeezed
en-route to India by sea and land route ments of vegetables were either de- due to imprudent policies.”
from Pakistan at the time of the notifi- layed or rejected on quarantine issues Rajdeep Uppal, Director Narain Ex-
cation are the losers. causing a huge dent to Indian exporters. imp Corporation, Amritsar told Tehelka
“About 900 trucks were deployed This discouraged the exports of fresh that a dichotomy persists between the
in routine by various transporters for fruits and vegetables from India to Pa- actions and words of our policymak-
haulage of goods from ICP which are kistan. Landlocked location of Punjab ers. “The import duty hike, according to
now out of business. Close to 5000 dissuades the local producers to export our Ministry of Trade and Commerce
families in Punjab, directly or indirectly via sea route, at the same time exports is done to isolate Pakistan. But it looks
dependent on trade with Pakistan have through land to Pakistan and further farcical when you find that Pakistan is
been severely affected post the duty Iran and CIF countries can fetch hand- importing whatever it feels viable from
hike as no alternative employment some returns to farmers. Though dou- India at a cheap price. Export duties are
opportunities are available in border bling of farmers’ income remained on untouched. Samjhauta Express, a twice
districts”, told Pradeep Sehgal, Vice weekly train between New Delhi and
President, Indian Importers Chamber Lahore is resumed, the talks for Kartar-
of Commerce and Industry. The dis- More than 120 pur corridor (proposed border corridor
tricts sharing international border with between two nations connecting Sikh
Pakistan are already susceptible to containers at Cochin shrines of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib and
anti-national and anti-social activities, Port, 200 Containers Gurudwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur)
hence unemployment at this scale due are underway. The cross LoC barter
to closure of business will worsen the at Tuticorin and trade between Indian side and Pak-Oc-
situation, Sehgal added. 90 truckloads of cupied Kashmir at Uri-Muzaffarabad
Major imports from Pakistan are and Poonch-Rawalkot route was sus-
cement, gypsum, dry-fruits and chemi- materials are lying in pended during the escalations but later
cals, whereas Pakistan majorly buys the warehouse of ICP resumed. In the backdrop of this, can
cotton yarn and cotton bales from us. punishing a segment of business put
Fresh vegetables are another promi- at Attari border as Pakistan at any disadvantage? This is a
nent export item but it was discontin- importers are not able half-hearted effort and will not benefit
ued in the wake of non-tariff barrier anybody”.
imposed by Pakistan about three years to pay 200% duty India had given MFN status to Pak
in 1996 but it was never re-
ciprocated by them. The trade
business goes on India has across Wagah has been to
withdrawn the MFN status to the tune of 2.4 billion USD
Pakistan after Pulwama attack per annum, and has depleted
considerably due to tensions
primarily in Kashmir. In fact
the projected potential of this
border outpost itself is over
70 billion dollar; it was always
perceived that 10 billion in
trade was indeed low hang-
ing fruit.
However, duty-free barter
trade across Trans LoC trad-
ing points (borders of Kash-
mir & the Kashmir occupied