Efforts under way to win better market access

Govt working on trade pacts with a host of countries.

LAHORE: Federal Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim has said that the government is actively engaged in trade diplomacy in an effort to get better access for the country’s businesses to international markets with the help of free and preferential trade agreements with a host of countries.

Speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday, Fahim said the government had entered into or was working on free trade agreements and preferential trade agreements with China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Bosnia Herzegovina, Russian Federation, central Asian states, Iran, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan and Sri Lanka.

Other market access initiatives include the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) Trade Agreement, Pakistan-India trade normalisation process, Saarc Agreement on Trade in Services and agreement on South Asia Free Trade Area (Safta).

Discussing the scope of exports, he recalled the incentives announced to boost exports such as concessionary financing, duty-free import of raw material under the temporary import scheme, duty and tax remission for export (DTRE) scheme, duty drawback, concessions in duty and taxes on import of machinery and raw material of priority export sectors and development of export clusters.

He acknowledged the challenges faced by the exporters in the face of stiff competition and called for expanding the export basket with the help of competitive prices and excellent quality of products.

He saw great scope for export of agricultural products, but said unluckily Pakistan could not be able to make any significant headway because of complicated sanitary and phyto-sanitary (PSP) requirements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2012.