Islamabad, Oct 14: Responding to India's offer of 250 items for trade concessions, Pakistan would offer 150 more items for concessional duties to India under the South Asia Preferential Trade Arrangement to enhance bilateral trade at the Sapta meeting in Kathmandu this week. "Pakistan would offer concessions on 150 plus items to India at the Saarc officials meeting to finalise Sapta process," 'Dawn' daily reported quoting officials.

Under Sapta, Pakistan has so far given concession to around 240 items at the sixth digit level to India while Islamabad received concession on around 370 items at the same level from New Delhi, it said.
There is still room for giving duty concession to India under Sapta on 440 more items, it said, adding at present there are only 686 items at the sixth digit level on the positive list for trading with India.

Both India and Pakistan are expected to exchange lists of items to be offered to each other at the meeting, the daily said, adding that India has offered 250 items to Pakistan and expressed its willingness to expand the list to over 1000 items if Pakistan reciprocated.

However, Pakistan was "unlikely" to expand the list considerably as the balance of trade between the two countries has "tilted heavily" in favour of India, it said.

Bureau Report