India and Pakistan have arrived at a ?broad agreement? on a liberalised visa regime for their businessmen, and a Cabinet note in this regard will be ready in 7-8 days.
Addressing a meeting organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) with a Pakistani business delegation, Ministry of Commerce and industry joint secretary Arvind Mehta said, ?The one-year multiple entry visa would allow businesspersons to visit up to 10 cities with no requirement of a police report and no restriction on points of entry and exit.?
Seeking to assure the Pakistani delegation that the perception of some businesspersons that open trade would swamp Pakistan
with Indian goods was misplaced, the commerce ministry official said a note to this effect would be ready in a week for the consideration of the Cabinet.
He said the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) had several safeguards to give comfort to the domestic industry.
One of these included the provision to stop imports in case of any negative impact on the domestic industry.
Mehta also sought to allay apprehensions that India had imposed non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on imports from Pakistan.
Citing an example, he said there was zero customs duty on cement imports.
Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik, however, remarked that there was an apprehension among Pakistani businesspersons about the existence of NTBs.
?These barriers do exist and there is no point in brushing this aside,? he said, expressing confidence that the commerce secretaries of the two countries would take steps to dismantle these barriers.
On visas, Malik said that the High Commission?s mission statement was that business visas applied for at 11 am should be given by 4 pm the same day and expressed hope that this would be reciprocated by the Indian side.
Currently, visas are granted under the 1974 visa policy of India, he said, adding frequent travelers visiting under the business visa were exempt from police reporting.