ICCI urges revision of FTAs and PTAs

Agreements have led to increase in import of subsidised goods, argues official

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Friday has called upon the government to revise Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) signed with various countries in order to improve exports and trade competitiveness.

As per the latest data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, exports during July-August 2016 fell by 8.19% compared to the same period of the previous year due to which the trade balance has widened by 27.28%, said ICCI President Atif Ikram Sheikh in a statement.

He said that countries normally sign FTAs and PTAs in order to increase market access for their exports and enhance their trade competitiveness. However, agreements signed by Pakistan have mostly led to an increase in import of subsidised consumer goods and exposure of the domestic industry, especially SMEs to unfair competition, he added.

“Pakistan has signed FTAs with China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and PTAs with Iran, Indonesia and Mauritius, but these trade deals have not achieved the desired results as yet.”

Pakistan was now striving for signing a FTA with Thailand, said Sheikh.

He stressed that the objective of these agreements should be to save domestic industry from negative implications and to boost the country’s exports, trade competitiveness and value-addition to domestic manufacturing industry, which would create more jobs and reduce unemployment.

The ICCI official emphasised that all free and preferential trade agreements should be signed after thorough consultation with stakeholders to achieve optimum results.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.

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