Direct access: ‘US should open markets to Pakistan’

"US president should announce incentives for the quick revival of the Pakistani economy", says Iftikhar Ali Malik.

LAHORE: The business community believes that US President Barack Obama should provide direct access to Pakistani products in US markets, at zero duty, during his second term. Founder Chairman Pak-US Business Council, and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Pakistan chapter Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik made these remarks while talking to the APP here on Friday. He said that US Chamber of Commerce (USCC) President Thomas Donohue and the EU fully supported Pakistan’s longstanding demand of duty-free exports of Pakistani products on an urgent basis. He said that the USCC chief had in the past also strongly urged the US president to help flood-ravaged Pakistan by getting Congress to pass a stalled legislation that would allow duty-free imports of selected Pakistani products. He said that the US president should announce incentives for the quick revival of the Pakistani economy as the country has also suffered immense losses in the war against terror.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2012.