Pakistan has agreed to open its market for over 7,000 items from India in the next three months and promised to grant New Delhi Most Favored Nation status, MFN, by 2012 end.

At the end of two-day talks between commerce secretaries of the two countries in New Delhi, India welcomed the Pakistani decision to accord MFN status and also the mandate given by Pakistan for full normalization of the bilateral trade relations and meeting all legal obligations.

The Joint Statement issued at the end of the meeting on Tuesday noted that Pakistan will prune the negative list of items by February next year. At the joint press briefing after the meeting, Pakistan Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood said that the negative list will be phased out by the end of next year.

The two neighbours also agreed to enhance the Preferential Trading Agreements under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement process.

To boost bilateral business confidence, both sides agreed to encourage greater interaction amongst the business entities.

Stating that the present visa regime for business persons was a significant barrier to the rapid expansion of trade, both sides also agreed to push further the liberalization of the business visa arrangements.

Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said that the two countries have decided that the liberalized visa provisions already agreed to, should be put in place before the end of this year.

AIR Correspondent reports that the next round of talks on commercial and economic cooperation between the Commerce Secretaries will be held in Pakistan next year.

The Home Secretaries of the two countries are slated to meet next month.