In a move likely to boost trade ties and people-to-people contact, Pakistan has agreed to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, a media report said on Sunday. India has already conferred MFN status on Pakistan and has been seeking reciprocity.

A senior official of Pakistan’s ministry of trade said on condition of anonymity that the MFN status would be granted during the current year, Urdu daily Jang reported. Pakistan has in return asked for immediate lifting of non-tariff restrictions on its exports to India.

Sources said trade and commerce minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim would soon announce basic changes in Pakistan’s trade policy. One of the amendments will be a draft to review the list of trade items between the two countries.

According to the source, Pakistan has agreed to grant MFN status to India this very year in return for lifting the non-tariff restrictions on imports from Pakistan. This will fulfill the long-standing Indian demand in return for lifting of non-tariff restrictions alone.

The report comes ahead of a possible meeting between the commerce ministers of India and Pakistan after a gap of more than three years in New Delhi next month to discuss ways to boost trade and proposals to remove non-tariff barriers as the two countries make efforts to normalize relations. Commerce minister Anand Sharma has invited his Pakistani counterpart Fahim, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, to visit New Delhi.