ISLAMABAD: At the Pak-Nepal Joint Economic Commission held on Monday, Katmandu has sought concessions from Islamabad to market its agricultural products and reforms in tariff and non-tariff barriers as well as preferential cargo tariffs.

The commission’s session was held after a gap of eight years.

“Nepal has emerged as one of the finest pashmina producers and we see potential that our agricultural products like cardamom, tea, coffee and medicinal herbs can find a reasonable space in the Pakistani market,” Nepalese Finance Minister Shanker Prasad Koirala said while addressing the eighth session of the joint economic commission.

Koirala said that the volume of Pak-Nepal bilateral trade was small but ‘significant’.

He appreciated Pakistan’s decision to allow duty-free access of Nepalese tea in Pakistan, and hoped this facility would continue with commensurate simplification of procedures at the Karachi port.

The Nepalese finance minister suggested frequent exchange of business delegations between the two private sectors.

The Nepalese finance minister requested the government to increase the number of seats for Nepalese students to undertake under-graduate training in most needy areas of technical education.

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar while speaking at the joint commission session, stated that Pakistan is keen to enhance its existing friendly relations with Nepal for exploiting new avenues for cooperation in commercial and economic fields for mutual benefit of the two countries.