Pakistan, India Seek Greater Trade as Barriers Break

Business people in India and Pakistan are yearning to see greater trade and investment as a peace process between the nuclear-armed rivals slowly breaks down old barriers, a top Indian official said in Pakistan on Tuesday.

Trade and investment between the South Asian neighbours has been stunted by decades of hostility. Direct trade is only worth about $300 million a year — a sliver of their combined $200 billion global trade.

“The business communities of both India and Pakistan are looking for, and yearning for, enhanced trade and economic opportunities between our two countries,” Indian Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath told a news conference in the Pakistani capital.

Nath’s visit to Islamabad, for a meeting of South Asian commerce ministers, is one more sign of the steadily improving relations between the neighbours which have embarked on a peace process since going to the brink of their fourth war in 2002…