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119 巴基斯坦希望首脑会议能打破与印度的贸易僵局
Pakistan Businesses Hope India Summit Can Break Trade Logjam
Jon Tkach
Islamabad
7 Jul 2001 03:13 UTC
India and Pakistan represent huge potential markets for each other, but 1)hostilities over the 2)critical issue of Kashmir have long kept trade between the countries to a trickle. With next week's summit approaching, Pakistan's struggling business community is hoping the meeting will open the door for more trade with its massive neighbor. But analysts say the central problem of Kashmir still threatens to hold up discussions on trade as well as other sticky issues.
India and Pakistan have a common border, nearly 3000 kilometers long.
But most of that is shut to trade, a closure sealed by two full-blown wars and 50 years of 3)enmity over the 4)mountainous region of Kashmir, which both countries 5)claim.
Only $200 million worth of goods 6)squeeze through 7)legally. Trade is restricted by a Pakistani list that names only 600 items cleared for import from India. Waqar Ahmed, is a coordinator in Islamabad for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, a free trade group. He says you only need to look at the amount of unofficial commerce, goods that get 8)smuggled or 9)routed through third countries, to understand how the trade barriers are hurting both countries. "The total trade is $1.5 billion on both sides. So you can easily imagine the amount which we are losing from the 10)tariffs,"he said.
He says trade between the two countries has the potential of hitting $5 billion per year.
But because of their longstanding hostility, he says, business people are forced to look elsewhere for goods they could get much cheaper right across the border. "Pakistan is importing machinery for cotton 11)textile manufacturing from Taiwan, and even from the European Union, which is almost twice the price of Indian machinery,"he said.
He stresses that Pakistan suffers the most from the trade 12)barriers, particularly now as its military government struggles to jump start the ailing economy, which has been ravaged by years of mismanagement and corruption.
But even though India granted Pakistan most favored nation 13)status in 1995, and has been pushing Pakistan to return the favor, Pakistan has held firm on restricting trade. Islamabad continues to insist the two sides first talk about the status of Kashmir, an issue India has, for the most part, been 14)unwilling to discuss.
In recent weeks, the rivals have made small 15)goodwill gestures and repeatedly voiced 16)optimism about the July 14 summit.
But Pakistan's military leader General Pervez Musharraf has also criticized India for "putting the cart before the horse"by wanting to raise trade and other issues before tackling Kashmir.
It is a theme that is popular among many Pakistanis, even for those who clearly 17)stand to gain from increased trade with India. Ejaz Ahmet runs a drug store in Islamabad. "In our eyes the foremost is the problem of Kashmir. Once it is solved, everything will be solved,"he said.
But writer and political analyst Talat Masood says there is a danger in pushing that theme too far, especially because, he says, it is not reasonable to expect one summit meeting to solve the 18)thorny issue of Kashmir. "They should attack the problem of Kashmir, but also go around it,"he said. "It should be a parallel 19)strategy and not one totally focused on Kashmir because that would also become 20)counterproductive."
He says Pakistan will certainly need to see some give from India on Kashmir in order to move ahead on other issues, especially trade.
But he adds an agreement to hold further talks on the status of Kashmir should be enough, for now, to allow Pakistan's leaders to get the ball rolling in other areas.
(1) hostility[hR5stIlItI]n.敌意, 恶意, 不友善, 敌对
(2) critical[5krItIk(E)l]adj.批评的, 危急的, 临界的
(3) enmity[5enmItI]n.敌意, 憎恨
(4) mountainous[5maJntInEs]adj.多山的, 山一般的, 巨大的
(5) claim[kleIm]n.(根据权利提出)要求, 要求权vt.(根据权利)要求, 认领, 声称
(6) squeeze through v.挤过, 勉强通过
(7) legally adv.法律上, 合法地
(8) smuggle[5smQ^(E)l]n.走私, 偷带v.走私
(9) route[ru:t]n.路线, 路程, 通道v.发送
(10) tariff[5tArIf]n.关税, 关税表, 税则vt.课以关税
(11) textile[5tekstaIl]n.纺织品adj.纺织的
(12) barrier[5bArIE(r)]n.(阻碍通道的)障碍物, 栅栏, 屏障
(13) status[5steItEs]n.身份, 地位, 情形, 状况
(14) unwilling[Qn5wIlIN]adj.不愿意的, 勉强的
(15) goodwill[^Jd5wIl]n.善意, 亲切
(16) optimism[5RptImIz(E)m]n.乐观, 乐观主义
(17) stand to gain v.一定获利
(18) thorny[5WC:nI]adj.多刺的, 痛苦的
(19) strategy[5strAtIdVI]n.策略, 军略
(20) counterproductive adj.反生产的, 使达不到预期目标的
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