MFN STATUS TO INDIA
Most Favored Nation
The Challenge
India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996 and the process of reciprocating the same started in 2011 when the cabinet unanimously decided to grant the much-debated status to India. This decision, however, raised serious concerns among the local industries especially agriculture, pharmaceutical, poultry and auto sectors because Pakistan, despite being an MFN for India, has not been able to penetrate the Indian market owing to the intelligently placed restrictive NTBs and para-tariff which are efficiently protecting India’s domestic industries. Local Industrialists believed that granting MFN or NOMA without erecting similar barriers will cripple them, possibly forcing them to close down their businesses altogether.
The Strategy
India granted MFN status to Pakistan in 1996 and the process of reciprocating the same started in 2011 when the cabinet unanimously decided to grant the much-debated status to India. This decision, however, raised serious concerns among the local industries especially agriculture, pharmaceutical, poultry and auto sectors because Pakistan, despite being an MFN for India, has not been able to penetrate the Indian market owing to the intelligently placed restrictive NTBs and para-tariff which are efficiently protecting India’s domestic industries. Local Industrialists believed that granting MFN or NOMA without erecting similar barriers will cripple them, possibly forcing them to close down their businesses altogether.
The Execution
The Passage successfully managed to gain the attention of the concerned authorities through strategic and constant feeding of information to the right media. The efforts proved fruitful as the Ministry of Commerce was forced to not only identify agriculture, auto, textile, and pharmaceutical as vulnerable sectors but also decided to keep these industries’ products in the sensitive list which would provide protection through the prevailing rate of custom duty.
