Pakistan on Wednesday lifted a two-year ban on the import of sugar and cotton from India , a major move aimed at reviving trade ties with N...
Pakistan on Wednesday lifted a two-year ban on the import of sugar and cotton from India, a major move aimed at reviving trade ties with New Delhi amid easing tensions, The Hindu reported. India is the world’s biggest producer of cotton and the second biggest sugar producer.
The decision to partially resume trade ties by allowing the import of cotton and 0.5 tons of sugar from India was taken at a meeting of the economic coordination council, Pakistan’s top decision-making body on commerce, the country’s finance minister Hammad Azhar, told AP.
Azhar, however, said that the action was driven by Pakistan’s personal interests, namely to reduce the soaring prices of sugar in the country.
“We have allowed the import of sugar, but in the rest of the world too, sugar prices are high because of which imports are not possible,” he told reporters. “But in our neighbouring country, India, the prices of sugar are much less as compared to Pakistan, so we have decided to reopen sugar trade with India up to 0.5 million tonnes for the private sector.”
New Delhi is yet to make any comment on the decision.
Pakistan was one of the leading buyers of Indian cotton until 2019, when Islamabad banned imports of goods from India after New Delhi...
