US welcomes Pakistan's MFN status to India

The US has welcomed Pakistani cabinet's move to grant the much-delayed Most Favoured Nation trade status to India, terming it a positive development towards the economic integration of the region.

"Today the Pakistani cabinet said that they were now going to go ahead with most favoured nation trade status with India. Well, that's a good development in itself," a senior Obama Administration official told reporters in a conference call.

"It is a positive development in terms of this vision of economic integration, Central Asia to South Asia," he said. The official lauded the progress made between the two countries on the commerce front.

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"The Indians and the Pakistanis continue to do a lot of work among their commerce ministers.

"The Indians, for examples, have spent, I think, a considerable amount of money improving the border crossing on their side at Wagah and the Pakistanis the same so that people can move goods back and forth," the official said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Chennai in July had mooted the idea of the economic integration of the region through her ambitious concept of New Silk route and the official said progress was welcome in this direction.

"When she (Clinton) was in Chennai, India in July, the Secretary talked about some things that could be done in facilitating business visas, for example, or following up on some of the existing projects, which I think are proof of concept of the New Silk Road, such as the TAPI pipeline or the CASA-1000 electricity project," the US official said.