US Congress: ‘Republican control good for Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expects Republican control of the lower house of the US legislature to be beneficial to the prospects of trade concessions for Pakistani goods, said Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood on Saturday.

As a means of bolstering the Pakistani economy, former US President George W Bush’s administration had proposed the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ), a bill that would grant tariff-free access to US markets for goods manufactured in the areas most affected by the Taliban militancy. President Obama’s administration has been supportive of the bill and has added the flood-affected regions of Pakistan to the list of areas that would be eligible for preferential access to US markets.

But the legislation necessary to enact the preferential trade agreement has been held up in the United States Senate, primarily by members of President Obama’s Democratic Party.

“The Democrats are sensitive about trade issues and Republican control of the US House of Representatives will be helpful in legislation”, said Mahmood. He added that the Obama administration has assured Pakistan that the bill will be passed soon, though no timelines have been mentioned.

It remains unclear, however, exactly how Republican control of just one half of the US legislature is expected to change anything. By the government’s own admission, the primary obstacle has been in the US Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats, as opposed to the House of Representatives, which is now controlled by Republicans. Indeed, it was the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives that passed the bill in 2009.

American textile manufacturers, primarily in states like South Carolina, have been vehemently opposed to the ROZ legislation since their businesses would most directly compete with Pakistani textile manufacturers who, despite power outages, still have a cost advantage over their US counterparts.

South Carolina is represented by two Republicans in the US Senate, neither of whom is supportive of the bill. The ROZ bill is also not supported by US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada. Despite the Republican landslide victories in November 2010, and constant assurances from the Obama administration, it seems unlikely that the legislation would ever even come up for a vote, let alone actually pass.

For their part, the Obama administration is likely to have cooled their efforts to secure the passage of this pro-Pakistan legislation at a time when tensions between the two countries are already high over the Raymond Davis affair.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2011.