India Unhappy Over Pakistan's Stand on SAFTA

Expressing unhappiness India has termed Pakistan's stand on the SAFTA agreement as a one against 'letter and spirit'.

A SAARC ministerial meeting in Dhaka early next month is likely to take up for urgent consideration the restricted list of 773 items for Indian exports issued by Islamabad despite it ratifying the accord without any reservation.

Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has expressed surprise over Pakistan's customs notification for Tariff Liberalisation Programme (TLP) which has been issued with a "rider" that it would be subject to its earlier Import Policy Order.

Observing that all member-states, including Pakistan, rafitied SAFTA without any reservation, Nath said New Delhi requested the SAARC Secretary General through a letter on July seven for holding an urgent meeting of the seven member states.