In terms of Reserve Bank of India's "master circular no. 02/2010 11" dated 1st July 2010 and "Consolidated FDI policy" issued by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, effective from 1st April 2011, India is maintaining Non MFN restrictive Domestic Regulations denying Market Access to Pakistan in India's multilaterally committed Trade in Services Regime. India is requested to inform:
a) Whether the Pakistan specific (in certain cases also applicable to some other SAARC countries) Domestic Regulations are WTO compatible.
b) The reasons for maintaining those discriminatory Domestic Regulations; and
c) Is there a roadmap to amend Pakistan specific Domestic Regulations to bring them at par with India's MFN commitments and the indicative timeframe to remove these distortions?
Reply: The policy on FDI has been steadily liberalised and is reviewed from time to time, with a view to increasing its investor friendliness. In keeping with this thrust towards an increasingly open policy environment, country specific restrictions on investment, which had earlier found a place under the policy on FDI, have also been gradually reduced over time.
