Understanding and awareness about international trade laws is important to protect domestic industry against unfair trade practices and ITC training would go a long way in strengthening the public and private sectors. The LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar and Director General PITAD Sajid Hussain stated this while addressing two-day training course on Trade Remedies jointly organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), International Trade Centre (ITC), PITAD and Punjab Department of Industries, Commerce and Investment under the EU-funded Trade Related Technical Assistance (TRTA II) programme.
The training aims at trade policy for capacity-building of the public and private sectors. The training is delivered by master trainer Ms Maliha Quddus who is supported by her mentor Dr Gustav Brink from the Switzerland based World Trade Institute (WTI) through video conference. Imran Zia Director National Tariff Commission (NTC) also delivered lectures on the important aspects of trade defence laws and the functions of NTC.
The training focused on the importance and basic provisions of the three trade defence laws including anti-dumping duties agreement, Subsidies and Countervailing duties agreement and the Safeguard Agreement. The situation in which these agreements could be invoked and the procedures which should be adopted while filing applications against dumping, subsidies and the excessive imports threatening domestic industry, would be particularly covered.
Jamil A. Naz Chairman S/C WTO Lahore Chamber of Commerce hailed the capacity-building initiatives and informed that there is a need for involvement of private sector in policy-making process. He highlighted the stalemate in the DOHA round of WTO negotiations and stressed the need to provide more favourable and business environment conducive to the private sector.
The Director General PITAD Sajid Hussain stressed the need to develop expertise in trade remedies' laws to benefit from the vast opportunities presented by multilateral trading system. He emphasised the need to develop the capacity of policy makers and the private sector in these laws so that domestic industry could be saved from unfair trade practices.
Mohammad Owais Khan Programme Officer International Trade Centre introduced the EU-funded TRTA II programme and highlighted the assistance provided by ITC to local training and research organisations to build their institutional capacity. He flagged the MoU facilitated by ITC between PITAD and the World Trade Institute which has contributed immensely to the capacity building of Pakistani policy makers. He vowed ITC will continue to provide technical assistance to Pakistani institutes to enable them to benefit from international trade. He particularly emphasised the need to develop expertise and capacity in trade defence laws.
More than sixty government officers and researchers from Federal Government ministries, implementing agencies, provincial departments and research organisations as well as businessmen from Lahore Chamber of Commerce attended the training to strengthen their capacity regarding trade remedies.