External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is on a visit to the US these days. Jaishankar represented India in the presidential swearing-in ceremony. There, he also held bilateral talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

'There has been no dialogue with Pakistan since last year'

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said there have been no discussions with Pakistan on resuming trade with India. "There have been no discussions with Pakistan on trade since last year and there has been no initiative from their side," Jaishankar said in response to a question at a press conference.

He said, India has never stopped trade with Pakistan and the decision in this regard was taken by the Pakistan government in 2019.

Pakistan has not granted MFN status to India: Jaishankar

Jaishankar said, "From the very beginning, it was our interest that India should get the Most Favoured Nation status. We used to give Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan. But they did not give us the same status."

The then Imran Khan government suspended all bilateral trade in August 2019 in retaliation for India's abrogation of Article 370 of its constitution, which gave special status to the then state of Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad had also downgraded its diplomatic ties with New Delhi.

What is Most Favored Nation?

Most Favoured Nation (MFN) means Most Favoured Nation. It is an international trade principle. Under this, countries should treat all their trading partners equally. That is, no country should give special status to goods or services coming from a particular trading partner. 

Let us tell you that the country getting MFN status is given more priority in trade. At the same time, the country getting MFN status gets all kinds of trade benefits.