Expressing satisfaction over the progress made at the last week's Indo-Pak trade talks, commerce secretary, Asif Ali Shah said: “I hope that Pakistan's exports to India will increase to a reasonable level”.

The two-day talks was held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The commerce ministry would consult all stakeholders before communicating the list of 20 items of Pakistan's preference, Shah was quoted as saying by local daily.

The list, to be prepared in consultations with the business and industry, should comprise items which Pakistan can export easily, without affecting domestic needs, he said.

Shah said India also showed readiness to import Pakistani cement and for this purpose, six cement factories have been selected. Indian officials said New Delhi decided to facilitate trade on 20 items of interest to Pakistan, while seeking addition of 484 items in the 1,075-item list on which Islamabad allows trade with New Delhi. The bilateral trade between India and Pakistan currently stands at $1.67 billion with balance of trade heavily in favour of India.

Shah said in the first phase, to be completed in the current month, three Pakistani companies would start exporting cement to India via land routes.

Indians were concerned over lack of infrastructure at border, which was necessary to facilitate bilateral trade, he added. However, both sides agreed that Pakistan and India would complete the infrastructure on their sides to facilitate transportation of goods by road.

Shahid Bashir, joint secretary, Foreign Trade, who was part of the delegation which took part in the talks, said Pakistan's exports to India could fetch $200 million to $300 million during the current financial year.

He said during the talks India did not take up the issue of transit facility for Afghanistan, which was its long-standing demand. “This time, they (Indians) neither raised the issue of MFN status nor of SAFTA,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

INDIAN SUGAR INFLUX

Indian sugar is all set to hit the local market in a big way as two consignments of 12,000 tons are reaching Pakistan in the next two to three days.

The first consignment of 6,000 tons is due in Lahore via Wagah border tomorrow and the second of equal quantity in Karachi before the end of the current week.

Indian sugar influx into Pakistan seems increasing, Pakistan's Business Recorder newspaper quoted officials as saying. Pakistani sugar importers are in a race to secure their deals with Indian sugar exporters, it said.

The total volume of the orders booked from India for sugar import can be judged from the first few consignments, which are going to add roughly 50,000 tons in the local market by 31 August.

Uninterrupted sugar import from India indicates that 25 per cent duty is not enough to discourage influx of subsidised Indian sugar. The land route via Wagah makes Pakistan's market an attraction to the Indian exporters, the newspaper said.

India has around one million tons surplus sugar.

Pakistani importers are buying sugar from India at $285 per ton and its cost at Karachi and Lahore is roughly between Rs 25.50 and Rs 26 against Rs 28 per kg local market rates.

A difference of Rs 2 per kg is enough to bait the Pakistani importers. They rushed to Indian businessmen as soon as the sugar prices in the local market crossed a break-even level, the report said.