Tuesday, August 9 2005 13:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India today (August 9, 2005) said, granting of the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) status to it by Pakistan, was a 'non-issue' in the wake of operationalisation of South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) from January One, 2006.

"MFN is a non-issue, as under SAFTA, Pakistan would be required to lower tariffs on items agreed under MFN," Commerce Secretary S N Menon told reporters on the sidelines of the Indo-Pak trade talks here.

Noting that SAFTA had brought a new hope to business communities, he said that successful negotiations of all outstanding issues, rules of origin, indicative sensitive list, mechanism of compensation on revenue loss and technical assistance to least contracting states will help in its operationalisation from January One, 2006.