Ministry of Commerce (MoC) is contemplating to create a hedge fund to facilitate exporters, Secretary Ministry of Commerce, Suleman Ghani informed business community on Tuesday. Speaking at a meeting of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), he said that under the conditions of the IMF and WTO, government cannot provide subsidy to the exporters to meet the rising cost of doing business.
He further said that the operational modalities of the fund has not yet been decided and advised trade bodies to submit suggestions in this regard. Commerce Secretary further said that another proposal, which is under consideration, is to provide insurance cover to visiting foreign importers and buyers of Pakistani goods.
Under the proposed scheme, Pakistani insurance companies will provide insurance cover and the government of Pakistan will pay the insurance premium, he explained. Ghani said yet another scheme, which is under consideration in the trade policy is to allow third party evaluation of the working of Pakistani trade commissioner, posted abroad.
He said that under the proposed scheme, trade body representatives would be allowed to conduct third party audit of the trade commissioners. Expenses on the third party evaluation will be borne by the government, he added Ghani said that in the coming trade policy, the Ministry of Commerce is focusing on boosting exports of Halal food. In addition, the ministry has planned to hold a meeting with the industrialists in Islamabad next week to discuss their issues and the coming trade policy, he added.
The Secretary Commerce Ministry advised the KCCI to hold a joint workshop in July after announcement of the trade policy with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) on how to increase trade with China. Regarding a suggestion to subsidise cottonseed, Ghani assured that he will look into the matter.
To another proposal to abolish labour levies like EOBI contribution, he said that the government will neither freeze these levies, nor they will be abolished. About Afghan Transit Trade (ATT), he said that the Ministry is examining the transit trade agreement of various countries and is planning to adopt best practices of these agreements. Regarding Trade Organisation Ordinance 2007, he termed it as the worst law of the land and added that whenever efforts were made to implement the law in its true sense, many problems arise.
Regarding BT cotton, he said that promoting sowing of BT cotton is on the card for increasing its yield. Replying to a question, he said that the President of Pakistan is scheduled to visit European Union (EU) countries to discuss market access and other matters related to trade and investment and Pakistan has already requested the US to allow some concession on import of Pakistan's products, he added
Former President of KCCI, Siraj Kassim Teli said that apprehended that industries' survival would be at stake if new taxes rare imposed on industries in the coming budget. Former KCCI President, Zubair Motiwala suggested to encourage export of value added goods and discourage export of raw materials in order to fetch more foreign exchange. President KCCI, Anjum Nisar proposed that efforts should be made to import olive oil in bulk quantity and after some value addition, it should be re-exported to China under Free Trade Agreement (FTA).