Realising the importance of compliance issues for growth of trade in future, the government is initiating a study to find out what is happening around the globe on this issue from all aspects, international practices, apart from identifying the policy changes needed with reference to Pakistan.
This was stated by the Federal Minister for Commerce, Humayun Akhtar Khan here on Saturday, while addressing the launching of 'Pakistan Compliance Initiative', a membership-based multi-stakeholder forum.
The forum is aimed at bringing together business, government and civil society to help the country's enterprise sector to 'ratchet up' their business processes in line with globally recognised standards of supply chain integrity.
The Minister observed that issue of compliance whether it was social, environmental or security compliance was not related to post WTO regime.
However, when quota regime would be eliminated by the end of this year, industrial units of the importing countries could use these issues as non-tariff barriers against Pakistan to make the competition more fierce and tough, he added.
Humayun said the government had done considerable work to change the labour laws, address the issues of standards, and take care of the environment so as to meet the compliance issues.
In the last trade policy, the government had introduced the concept of corporate entities to install 13 affluent treatment plants in distinct industrial estates, he said.
He was of the view that big business houses could meet the environmental compliance issues at their own, but this would help small and medium units to meet these standards.
He added that the government was ready to be a stakeholder through Export Development Fund (EDF) in this regard.
'Money is available and where it is not possible for the private sector, government is ready to work for their assistance,' the minister assured.
Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Abdullah Yousuf said on the occasion that the issue of security compliance was the most critical especially after 9/11.
He disclosed that Pakistan would install seven containers' scanners at the cost of $ 6 million. Out of these four would be installed in Karachi and one each in Chamman, Torkham, and Lahore (NLC Dryport), for selective container scanning on a "risk basis to take care of the security concerns of foreign buyers." Gradually, the number of scanners would be increased to cover the entire trade volume, he added.
This was being done in line with the US Container Security Initiative (CSI), an initiative put in place by the America after the fateful events of 9/11, to stop smuggling of material which could be used for carrying out any terrorist act.
This was operative on mega ports of the world and US wanted to enhance its coverage soon, which would also include Pakistan. The World Customs Organisation has also passed a resolution on the world supply chain security to counter terrorism and other criminal activities, he said.
He claimed that Pakistan would be taking care of the security compliance aspect in next six months.
Moreover, the CBR is trying to automate the entire customs procedures to reduce the clearance time to just one-day from seven days, the CBR chief said. The CBR would also consider the proposal to offer tax incentives to companies meeting compliance issues to encourage the trade from the country, he added.
Others who addressed at the occasion included former Federal Commerce Minister and Chairman Pakistan Compliance Initiative (PCI), Razzak Dawood, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Onder Yucer and other local and foreign experts.
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