New Delhi: Pakistan seeks to normalize trade relations and boost commerce with its neighbor India and also wanted an implementation on agreement in which both the countries provided a licence to two banks from each country.
The current visa regime and the absence of a banking relationship are the biggest non-tariff barriers for trade, stated by the state minister for commerce and textile industry Khurram Dastagir Khan, who is in India for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) business leaders conclave .
In August 2012, it was announced that both sides have agreed to issue a full banking licence to two banks from each country.
The two Indian banks that were allowed to operate in Pakistan were State Bank of India and Bank of India.
Khan told to Indian wire service that the issue was raised with his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma in New Delhi during a visit by Pakistan’s Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The Minister, who Thursday left for India, said “The State Bank of Pakistan has just written to the RBI that three banks would like to open their branches in India. I don’t know when but it will happen. Some movement has taken place,” he said.
The Minister argued that the biggest hurdle in having normal trade ties is the “very restrictive visa regime”.
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