EPB to help make exporters aware of US security regulations

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) will soon start an awareness programme on security to help the exporters comply with the US security regulations so that their export shipments are not held up at the US ports.
The new security regulation, International Ship and Ports Security (ISPS) code, would come into effect from July 1.
This was stated by EPB Vice-Chairman Tariq Iqbal Puri, who has been designated as Pakistan's Economic Minister at Brussels, at a dinner hosted by the Towel Manufacturers Association (TMAP).
He was invited to express his views on the working of EPB and the future of textile in the post-quota elimination period.
Referring to the fulfilment of condition of social compliance in the new World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime, Puri said that the EPB launched a programme to hire consultants and technicians to help the exporters improve their manufacturing efficiency to reduce their cost of production to become competitive in the free trade era.
The EPB would share 50 percent cost of the constancy service, he added.
The EPB Vice-Chairman cited the example of Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Plgmea), which hired Korean technicians to advise Pakistan leather workers in improved production skills.
The service was also available for marketing and warehousing, he said.
The EPB had short-listed foreign consultants and management firms for hiring by the exporters on a cost-sharing basis, Tariq Puri said.
He, however, expressed his dismay over the lukewarm response from exporters' association to the scheme.
Referring to the criticism on the working of the EPB in not solving problems of the exporters as enunciated by TMA Chairman Sanaullah Dogar, the EPB Vice-Chairman said he would not defend the Bureau, and said that the EPB came into being in sixties when the country's exports amounted to 200 million dollars only, which would this year cross 12 billion dollars.
The main credit for this went to the exporters, but there must be a role of the government, Ministry of Commerce and the Bureau, he said.
Comparing the achievements made by the EPB with Trade Promotion Bureaus (TPO) of other countries, Tariq Puri said that the former on average participated in 70 trade fairs, which was the highest by any TPO.