The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) is fully supportive to the implementation of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta), provided its counterparts and the governments of other member countries also come forward with open mind and hearts.
This was stated by FPPCI President Riaz Ahmed Tata in a meeting with Senior World Bank economist Zarin Fatima Naqvi, who was on visit to the FPCCI head quarters here to seek input from the private sector to compile a study on implication of the Safta on Indo-Pak trade.
Tata offered "joint research study" on such vital issues wherein consultancy of the private sector was acquired.
He stressed the need for prior consultation with the private sector before implementing any accord, which directly related to the business community.
He also demanded of the World Bank to allocate funds for private sector for carrying out research studies on trade-related issues.
The FPCCI President highlighted some hidden facts, which were hurdles in the streamlining of free flow of the trade.
Elaborating, Tata said that the report on the Safta, undertaken by the World Bank should be prepared on factual and practical grounds, because in the present era, there was no room for theoretical assumptions and estimates.
The Safta document would remain ineffective until the rootcause of political conflict in the region was not addressed amicably, he said.
Tata further said the free trade meant unrestricted regime, which should be aimed at eliminating obstacles. If the contracting members of the Safta did not implement that document unconditionally, the desired results might not be obtained, he added.
FPCCI's former president Tariq Sayeed was of the opinion that if the Safta was implemented with true spirit, Pakistan would be a larger gainer as compared to other South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) member nations.
He said though the legal trade volume of Pak-India trade was only 237 million dollars, the trade through other channels was accounted for more than 1.5 billion dollars, which reflected the existing potential between the two countries. Tariq Sayeed elaborated that if Pakistani market could face the inflow of the Chinese goods, the Indian commodities would also not pose any threat.
He said though many of the Indian products were cheaper, they were inferior to the Pakistani products and that situation created markets for Pakistan in domestic and abroad.
To a question regarding the grant of most favoured nation (MFN) status, Tariq Sayeed said though Indian granted Pakistan the MFN status, the treatment was limited whereas Pakistan maintained a list of more than 800 items, which were importable from India. He said that the business community was willing to grant India the MFN status by the government of Pakistan, but that was a political issue rather than trade-related, adding that India would automatically achieve the status after the implementation of the Safta.
FPCCI Vice-President Mian Arshad Alam, who attended two meetings of the Committee of Experts (CoE) on the Safta, enlightened the World Bank representative with the current working of the CoE.
He said that sensitive matters like rules of origin, mechanism for the compensation of revenue losses by LDCs, list of sensitive items and technical assistance from the DCs to the LDCs of the Saarc were held with the CoE on which were awaiting for solution.
He said those issues were complex in nature and required practical approach. It would be far better if those issues could be resolved with the consultation of the private sectors of all the contracting parties of the Safta.
Zarin Fatima Naqvi thanked the FPCCI members for valuable input on the subject matter. Chairman of FPCCI Standing Committee on privatisation Sardar Ashraf, and FPCCI members Shahnawaz Ishtiaq and others were also participated in the meeting.
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