Pakistan does a U-turn on reopening trade with India, harps on Kashmir again

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In an abrupt U-turn, Pakistan announced on Thursday that the reopening of trade with India would be deferred until New Delhi reviews its 2019 move to revoke the Kashmir region’s special status.</p>
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The decision has come as a surprise since only a day earlier, a government committee headed by the country’s finance minister had announced that trade with India would be reopened for the import of sugar and cotton to bring down skyrocketing prices of the two commodities in Pakistan.</p>
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This would have marked the reopening of trade between the two countries after two years and was seen as an important step towards normalising relations. However, Islamabad has proved yet again that it can abruptly change the situation when it comes to diplomatic relations with India, as decisions taken by Pakistan’s political leadership are often overruled by the military establishment that exercises de facto power in the country.</p>
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“The federal cabinet on Thursday deferred the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) decision to resume trade with India until the Modi-led government reviews its 2019 move to abrogate the autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir,”  Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was quoted as saying in an online report by Pakistan’s ExpressTribune</p>
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“In an effort to cool local demand and prices, the ECC on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the imports from India. That move was to have ended nearly two years of trade suspension between the nuclear-armed rivals,” the report said.</p>
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Federal Minister for Human rights Shireen Mazari said in a Tweet that the Prime Minister Imran Khan and cabinet members made it clear that “there is no normalisation of relations” until New Delhi revokes its illegal action of abrogating autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir.</p>
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Headed by newly-appointed Finance Minister Hammad Azhar, the ECC had announced to resume trade with India as part of an understanding to gradually normalise bilateral relations and ensure food security of the country that is bracing for shortages of wheat, sugar and cotton, the Tribune report said.</p>
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The country had suspended bilateral trade with India on August 9, 2019 after “the Indian government’s unilateral action to change the status of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”.</p>
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In the first place, the ECC of the cabinet, immediately allowed the import of 500,000 metric tonnes of sugar and unspecified quantity of cotton and yarn from India to bridge the nearly three million shortfalls.</p>
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The sugar trade was being re-opened with India this year because of the difference in prices in the neighbouring country, Finance Minister Azhar said. He added that the government estimated a difference of 15-20% in sugar prices in India as compared to Pakistan.</p>
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“We have allowed the import of sugar but in the rest of the world too, sugar prices are high because of which imports are not possible,” the minister said.</p>
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The ECC allowed the commercial import of white sugar from India up to 500,000 metric tonnes till June 30, 2021 through land and sea routes, on the basis of quota issued by the commerce ministry. The decision will be time and cost effective and would also stabilise the prices of sugar in the domestic markets, the finance ministry had said.</p>