Majyd
Aziz / Tridivesh Singh Maini
Commercial
Associations, Trade Guilds, and Business and Industry Chambers are formed to
promote, project and protect the interests of membership. The worth, acceptance
and effectiveness of such organizations are directly related to the critical
mass they have in achieving the desired objectives and doing justice to their
mandate. It is, therefore, fit and proper to analyze and evaluate the
performance of those trade organizations that are directly involved in the
cause of bilateral liberalization of trade and investment of India and
Pakistan.
Chambers of Commerce are important not
just because they understand the benefits of closer economic linkages, but also
for the fact that the relationships established between them are strong, and
while during times of political tensions they may not be totally immune, yet
they can find ways and means of keeping the dialogue intact.
India and Pakistan may have not
achieved desirable progress on a number of fronts, yet one area where there has
been significant movement in the past decade has been the sphere of trade and
commerce. In addition to the vision of the political leadership, Chambers and
Associations too have played a vital role not just in urging their respective
governments to ease out trade restrictions but also to liberalize the existing
visa regime thus enabling the increasing interactions between the business
communities on both sides.
While taking
the above facts into consideration, while acknowledging the fact that trade and
industry of both India and Pakistan are keen to liberalize trade and remove red
tape and bottlenecks, and while accepting the fact that there are serious
security and survival concerns among many stakeholders and policymakers, it is
now an established position that the process of liberalization of trade and
ushering in a regional economic integration would maintain a forward feature
despite myriad efforts to insert a monkey wrench in the process.
Therefore, it
is appropriate to check out the role of trade and industry representatives in
bilateral trade and investment. There is a SAARC Chamber of Commerce and
Industry headquartered in Islamabad with a functioning secretariat. The
President’s office rotates among the SAARC members and it organizes various
events to promote the issues of business and industries of the eight SAARC members,
more so with reference to SAPTA and SAFTA. A special focus is accorded to Indo-Pak
trade and investment as it is rightly agreed that addressing these issues and
bringing about mutual understanding would be the game changer in arriving at
the objectives of regional economic integration. SAARC-CCI has an advantage in
the sense that a combined focus is given to an issue as it allows working space
to deal with national concerns of each neighboring country. The India Pakistan
Chamber of Commerce and Industry is another joint initiative of businessmen.
The members do meet to formulate joint strategies and push for various reforms.
However, it lacks persuasive influence because the leadership usually consists
of those businessmen who are already well-entrenched in FICCI, FPCCI, SAARC-CCI
etc. Thus there is mostly an overlapping of efforts. In fact, IP-CCI is not
able to generate the desired results. Another organization is the Pakistan
Business Council that has a limited number of members who are among the major
corporations, groups or conglomerates. PBC generally liaises with the Pak-India
Joint Business Forum. PIJBF is composed of the representatives of the top
corporations of both countries and has an edge over others in conveying the
common concerns to New Delhi and Islamabad.
The Indian
mega national trade organizations, like FICCI and CII, have endeavored
in intensive lobbying and awareness-raising. It is pertinent to mention that a
number of regional Chambers like the PHD Chamber of Commerce (Punjab), South
Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce have been vociferously
urging their respective state governments, as well as New Delhi, to take practical
steps for giving a fillip to bilateral trade.
The South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce
has taken the lead in establishing links with designated Chambers of Commerce
in Pakistan. For this purpose, an MOU was signed with Karachi Chamber of
Commerce and Industry in November 2013. The Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce too
has urged the state and central governments to open land crossings between Gujarat
(Kutch region) and Sindh with the aim of rekindling trade ties between the two
regions. So far no tangible progress has been made in this direction.
The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and
Industry has been in the forefront in promoting bilateral trade and investment,
in granting MFN (or NDMA) to India, in opening of the Munabao-Khokhrapar route
for trade and people movement, in assisting and organizing exhibitions and
visits by various Indian organizations such as FIEO, FISME, etc and, more
importantly, in establishing mutually beneficial linkages. The proposed
Mumbai-Karachi Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a valuable initiative of
Mumbai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and KCCI, would be a trailblazer once
it receives formal approval from both the governments. KCCI is a prime stakeholder
in Indo-Pak trade and therefore it commands the weight to strenuously lobby for
a broad canvas of liberalization of trade and immediate removal of all
roadblocks, especially the Non-Tariff Trade Barriers, that have haunted businessmen
from enhancing official trade movement.
At this
present moment, the three global areas of concern for Pakistani businessmen and
industrialists are GSP Plus by European Union, substantial market access by USA
government, and bilateral trade with India. It does not in any matter rule out
other serious and imperative issues such as infrastructure shortages, political
instability, negative image, impact of terrorism and extremism, to name a few.
What this narrative focuses on is that the three broad global areas do and
would make a formidable influence on the country’s economic fundamentals.
Pakistan’s exports are a pitiful $25 billion and despite all projections and
political visions, attaining the $30 billion threshold may not be realized till
2016.
In India,
exports are in the zone of $325-330 billion and the Modi government has gone
full force in drumming up huge exports, attracting massive foreign direct
investment, and getting rid of bureaucratic slowpokes. A concerted strategy has
been chalked out to mushroom the shipments of the Made in India brand
worldwide. The plethora of Free Trade Agreements, Preferential Trade
Agreements, Economic and Political Blocs, plus Observer Status at many a world
forum, are some of the fast-track initiatives undertaken by Delhi. Trade and
investment sector has been very cleverly isolated from various contentious
issues. This approach is really a pragmatic option and manifests favorable
adherence to economic diplomacy.
Pakistan has a trade deficit with India but
this should not be an impediment nor should be perceived with skepticism by
policymakers. There is an imperative need to develop mutual comparative
advantages through more regional integration. Trade facilitation, supply-side
capacity, and the removal of prejudiced use of NTBs are critical to enhance Pakistan’s
export opportunities to India. Of course, a reality-check is essential,
especially to determine through in-depth investigations into informal trading
that is more damaging than granting NDMA or in removing the cobwebs that hamper
formal trade or, more significantly, a paradigm shift in common bias, distrust,
and jingoism. This is where the mantle of power of the trade organizations
comes into action. Otherwise, summits, conferences, research studies, and
camaraderie would turn out to be Quixotic adventures for a long, long time.
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