“No discussion so far on withdrawal of MFN to Pak”: Sitharaman

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi-The government has so far not discussed the issue of withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today. India, she said, had extended the MFN status to Pakistan as a “goodwill gesture” way back in 1996 but unfortunately the neighbouring country has not yet extended the same to New Delhi.

“On the issue of the withdrawal of MFN from Pakistan, strictly speaking, that has not yet been discussed,” she told reporters here. The decision to withdraw the status or not will have to be taken by the government and “I cannot comment on that”, she added. Last month, government had decided to review the MFN status given to Pakistan at a meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But the meeting was postponed.

The review decision was taken in the wake of the Uri attack. India also considered the option of dragging Pakistan to WTO over non-extension of the status. The neighbouring country has missed its own deadline of December 2012 for giving India this tag. As per the global trade norms, member countries of the WTO are required to give non-discriminatory market access as part of the MFN status to each other.