India and Pakistan on Wednesday agreed upon a series of measures such as allowing banks from either side to open branches, expansion of tradable items and allowing cross border movement of trucks, to boost the bilateral trade from the existing 1.5 billion dollars to 10 billion dollars by 2010.

These decisions emerged at the conclusion of the two-day Fourth Round of India-Pakistan talks on Economic and Commercial Cooperation within the framework of the Composite Dialogue.

Emphasising the importance of having bank branches in either country to facilitate trade, both sides agreed to allow banks from each other country to open branches.

“To start, National Bank of Pakistan and United Bank of Pakistan will be allowed to open branches in India while the State Bank of India and Bank of India will be permitted by Pakistan to open branches there”, the Commerce Secretary G K Pillai and the Pakistan Commerce Secretary Syed Asif Shah told a joint press conference after the conclusion of the two-day long trade talks. 

“Both sides agreed to finalise the processing of the applications for the two bank branches in either country within six months of the receipt of applications or by December 31 this year or whichever is later”, Shah said.

Cementing shortages

In a bid to meet the cement shortage India agreed to import cement from Pakistan. A joint statement issued after the conclusion of talks stated, to facilitate import of cement from Pakistan, India would complete all statutory certification related formalities on a fast track. Similarly, to facilitate import of tea from India, Pakistan agreed to encourage trading of tea through rail.

In a bid to further expand the basket of products for bilateral trade India proposed a list of 484 tariff lines for inclusion in the positive list of items importable from India. Currently Pakistan allows import of nearly 1020 items from India.

In a significant move to boost bilateral trade both the sides agreed to allow cross border movement of trucks up to designated points at Wagah Attari for unloading and reloading of cargos.

Both sides agreed to hold the first technical level meeting on August 20 at Wagah border to work out modalities.