Federal Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar has said that negotiations for 'Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT)' with the United States are on, and hopefully it will be finalised soon.
The issue was also discussed with President Bush during his recent visit to Pakistan and he (Bush) called for its early finalisation, the minister claimed while talking to reporters here on Monday.
To a question about GSP (general scheme of preferences) with EU, Humayun said that under it, duty on Pakistan textile products had been reduced from 12 to 9.6 percent, on non-textile items to 3.5 percent and on some products it has been reduced to zero. About anti-dumping duty on bed linen, he said it had been curtailed from 13.1 percent to 5.8 percent.
To a question regarding increase in trade deficit, the commerce minister said it seems high because of increasing import of machinery, but it is a positive sign showing high industrial growth in the country. There has also been a substantial raise in import of cellular phones following present government's liberal policy towards telecom sector, the minister added.
Humayun further said that the government reduced duty on cars and amended rules for import of cars under gift scheme, in order to eliminate premium on local cars and the policy has remained very successful. Now there is no premium (on-money) on locally produced cars.
About raising exports, he said," We plan to raise the export volume to $20 billion by the next year and after we achieve this goal, we will organise a function to celebrate it," Humayun announced.
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