The terrorist attacks in Delhi will not hamper discussions related to ?cross LoC (line of control) trade? with Pakistan, according to Union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Commerce ministry officials said India had proposed to open the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road and some other routes along the LoC for carrying out border trade with Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the first week of September. India wants the negotiations for cross-border trade completed before October so that trade takes off just after the Ramzan month.
With terrorist attacks in Delhi on September 13, it was feared that the negotiations on cross-border trade with Pakistan might get
jeopardised. Mukherjee told FE, ?Discussions are still going on and nothing with Pakistan on the trade front is hampered. Things are moving as we are expecting them to.?
He was here at the 121 st annual general meeting of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Before the government launched formal negotiations, Mukherjee had made a request to the Pakistan government to revive ?cross LoC trade?. According to commerce ministry officials, while India has submitted a list of 14 items for import, including precious stones and embroidery works, it has submitted a list of 23 items for export including Kashmiri shawls, carpets and rugs. But for strategic reasons, the government excluded fruits from Kashmir, famous worldwide, from the export list, officials said.
Government sources said Pakistan has approved most of the items India sent for two-way trade but, as expected, it has not included Kashmiri fruits in the list. Officials felt that although the trade will not have much of an economic impact on the people of the Kashmir valley, opening up the road to Pakistan along the LoC will have a positive influence on the minds of the people. Cross-border tensions can also be reduced through trade, they added.