With a view to ensuring consistency in the government policies to promote international trade, the upcoming trade policy would be of three years. Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim disclosed this while talking to media after addressing the business community at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) here on Saturday.
He said Pakistan was currently passing through critical phase because of the war on terrorism and had so far suffered a loss of over 35 billion dollars. "We would demand the world, including the US and the European countries, to provide an access for Pakistani products so that trade deficit could be minimised," he added.
He said: "There is no way to get rid of rising trade deficit unless we curtail the import of unnecessary items." Speaking to the LCCI members, the minister while conceding that the problems, being faced by trade and industry, required immediate resolution.
However, he promised to call a meeting of businessmen and all concerned ministries for a concrete practicable strategy. Makhdoom Amin, who remained present for about three years at the LCCI and listened to the members, said the issues like high mark-up, tariff rates, law and order and industrial policy related to the Ministries of Finance, Industries and Interior.
He said that the industrial wheel would not move forward until a solution to each of these issues was found. He said: "It is in the supreme national interest that all the chambers of the country and trade bodies sit together with all the concerned ministries and sort out every issue even if they have to sit for a week."
He said that he would request even the Prime Minister to preside over that meeting. He said the economy could not move forward until a comprehensive, viable and long-term policy was formulated in consultation with all the stakeholders.
The Commerce Minister regretted that Pakistan had not been provided level playing field in the global market compared with its competing economies. He said efforts were afoot to obtain access to the US and European markets on favourable terms.
He hoped that the United States would soon approve the proposed Economic Opportunity Zones (ROZs) that would enable 15-year duty-free access of Pakistani products to the US markets. Federal Commerce Secretary Salman Ghani, who was also present on the occasion, said the issue of cotton import through Wagah would be resolved in a week to the satisfaction of the textile industry.
Responding to the members on Expo Centre, Lahore, he said that two floors of the Expo Centre would be functional by June. The centre could not be completed due to financial constraints, as it required Rs 1.4 billion. Now the funds were being released, the remaining part of the centre would be completed by the end of next year.
He said the terror threat had damaged the prospects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan. He admitted that smuggling through Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) had increased, and added that this was due to high regulatory duty imposed by the government on luxury goods, which needed to be reduced to check smuggling.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Mian Muzaffar Ali said that tariff reforms, market access and diversification of exports were three key issues that were of paramount relevance to Pakistan''s trade policy.