Here’s an encouraging article I came across recently. BBC News reports that India and Pakistan are working jointly to register a GI for Basmati rice. The implications of such cooperation are extremely profitable as Basmati accounts for more than half the rice consumed in Europe and the Middle East. As the Indian share in the Basmati market has increased in the past few years Pakistan has suffered and so this GI will be a real aid to their market share.
Amit Mitra, secretary general of Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, says that India already has a free trade agreement with Sri Lanka and an excellent business relationship with Bangladesh and almost open borders with Nepal.
“What we are left to do is to achieve India-Pakistan and it’ll be like a European Union (EU) in very short time,” he says. “And it will be an EU that is growing at 9% to 10%, if not more.”
Although the situation may not be as optimistic as the quote perhaps trade will set aside years of political religious strife in the region. Now if only they could come to such a convenient consensus with regard to Pashmina.
