'Pakistan weighs duty-free wheat exports'

Pakistan agriculture officials want to end a ban on the duty-free export of wheat and are trying to allay fears in the finance ministry that the move would push up domestic prices, officials said on Wednesday.
Pakistan imposed a 15 percent export duty and then banned the export of wheat in May 2004, though the state-run Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) had stopped exporting a year earlier due to shortfalls in domestic supply.
Pakistan now has a surplus of more than 1.5 million tonnes, however, and farm ministry officials are worried that rising stocks might push domestic prices below a government minimum of Rs 415 per 40 kg, fixed to support farmers.
A decision on exports is expected when the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC), the main economic decision-making body, meets next month, officials said.