India's reported willingness to relax its ceiling on cotton exports to accommodate the Pakistani demand for the commodity if Pakistan will permit the overland export of onions is a welcome development. The floods in Pakistan affected some portion of its cotton crop, and the country is now short of the commodity for its domestic textile and yarn industry, the mainstay of its fragile economy; heavy and unseasonal rains have caused an onion shortage in India, pushing its price up and out of reach of the ordinary pocket. Onions are in good supply in Pakistan; India's cotton harvest is better than in previous years. It takes nothing more than common sense to see that the two countries can alleviate each other's shortages. The Indian government's decision to restrict the export of cotton to 5.5 million bales in 2010-11 was taken keeping in view the demand of the domestic textile and yarn industry and the estimated production this year. There was no country-specific quota. But amid rising world prices and high demand, Indian traders evidently found it more advantageous to prioritise shipments to China and Indonesia, and the orders for one million bales from Pakistan went unheeded. Also, traders were given an extremely short calendar to register orders. A small upward revision by the Cotton Advisory Board in the projected cotton harvest has evidently enabled the Indian Commerce Ministry to consider raising the export ceiling as a reciprocal measure to Pakistan agreeing to exporting onions to India through the Wagah border.

The Pakistani government has frozen the trade on this route to keep domestic prices in check. It has allowed onions to be exported only by sea, but this long and expensive alternative defeats the purpose for which India wants Pakistani onions. Islamabad must consider New Delhi's proposal with an open mind. An agreement on this may not translate into a paradigm shift in India-Pakistan relations, but in these times of embittered relations, even a small step towards good neighbourliness can go some way in altering the mood of mutual hostility. It now appears that both the countries are tentatively preparing for another round of engagement in March, most likely between the Foreign Secretaries on the sidelines of the SAARC standing committee meeting at Thimpu. The Foreign Ministers may hold talks later in New Delhi, although the date for the meeting has not been decided yet. Cotton and onions are unlikely drivers of India-Pakistan diplomacy, but they could help smoothen the stage for the forthcoming rounds of talks.