Regulatory duty on fine yarn import likely to go

Dastgir says there is no progress on improving trade ties with India

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce is considering removing the 10% regulatory duty on fine yarn import but it will keep the duty on coarse yarn in an effort to protect the commodity produced in the country.

Talking to a group of journalists on Wednesday, Commerce Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir said Pakistan mainly imported fine yarn that came from India, Central Asian states and other countries to bridge the demand and supply gap following the drop in cotton production in the country.

He said the ministry was mulling over withdrawing 10% regulatory duty on fine yarn keeping in view the domestic demand. However, the duty on coarse cotton yarn will stay in place to give protection to the domestic industry as Pakistan mostly produces this type of yarn.

The minister declared that there was no progress on improving trade relations with India, but with Afghanistan some headway had been made in terms of trade agreements.

He pointed out that Afghanistan was ready to incorporate the TIR convention on international transport of goods into the transit trade agreement and as a result Pakistani containers would not be charged duties and taxes. Pakistan has become a member of the TIR framework since January 21 this year.

Free trade

Dastgir also revealed that there had not been any significant progress in negotiations on second phase of the free trade agreement with China since Beijing was not willing to give 90% access to its markets from the existing 35%.

Talking about planned free trade deals with member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the minister said Pakistan was keen to give all those concessions to them including Thailand that had already been given to China.

“This will not only give us access to these potential markets, but Pakistani goods will also enjoy the same concessions that are offered to Chinese commodities. This will be on a reciprocal basis,” he said.

Negotiations with Thailand on the free trade agreement are in final stages and Pakistan sees the Southeast Asian country as a gateway to Asean markets. Pakistan and Thailand had agreed in principle on the framework of the agreement, which would be signed shortly, the minister said.

He called Pakistan’s business community and experts highly protective who stood in the way of integration with the international markets.

Talking about developments in trade ties with Iran after the lifting of sanctions, Dastgir said they were just informed about the removal of restriction on Iranian banks, which was a key hurdle to initiating trade with the neighbour.

The commerce ministry wants to send a delegation to Iran soon headed by the minister for food security and research for talks on certain matters pertaining to bilateral trade.

Regarding delay in approval of the Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2015-18 sent to the Prime Minister Secretariat months ago, he said the ministry was waiting for the response of the PM Secretariat.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th,  2016.

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