Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for a meeting to review the "Most Favoured Nation" status granted to Pakistan in 1996 as part of a trade pact, ANI reported. The decision to hold the meeting on September 29 with officials of the ministries of commerce and external affairs comes a day after Modi and senior functionaries discussed whether the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan needs to be revisited.
Pakistan was awarded the MFN status under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, according to which all signatories treat each other with as favoured trading partners. Withdrawing the status, however, will have negligible impact on India as bilateral trade with Pakistan accounts for only 0.4% of the country's overall goods trade, according to The Indian Express.
India has toughened its stance against Pakistan since the September 18 attack on the Indian Army base in Kashmir's Uri sector that killed 18 soldiers. During the review meeting on the Indus Waters Treaty, the prime minister had asserted that "blood and water cannot flow together", referring to the multiple infiltration attempts staged by militants from across the border and other attacks on India carried out by radicals from Pakistan. The treaty determines how water from six rivers that pass through the two countries will be shared.
On September 21, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, said India had posed "unacceptable preconditions" for dialogue. India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in her own UNGA address, said nations not willing to join the fight against terrorism should be isolated.
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