Mar 19: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) president Syed Zia Alumdar Hussain on Tuesday said the government was trying its optimum to provide wider access to the Pakistani exporters in USA, China and Indonesian markets so that they could enhance export volume to these potential markets.

However, in this connection all stakeholders must be consulted before signing any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), he added.

In a statement, Syed Zia appreciated the government's efforts to explore the new opportunities to enhance export volume. He said before finalization of any FTA or PTA each and every detail of agreement must be shared with local businessmen to fully exploit this facility.

He said that Indonesia had recently relaxed duties on various Pakistani products. “The same facility has also be offered to Indonesia,” he said and added that only businessmen could make this agreement in favor of Pakistan by maintaining strategic balance between the imports and exports.

Regarding trade with USA, he said there was no Pakistani Consulate General in New York. He said that government should appoint appropriate person for this important post who could play a pivotal role in enhancing Pakistani export for this potential market.

He said that Pakistan was importing huge quantity of edible oil for its domestic market while the government should increase domestic production of cooking oil. “We must increase area under cultivation of sunflower and other oil seeds,” he said and added that sunflower was sown over 8000 acre of land which had been trimmed to 3000 acres this year.

Similarly, he demanded that regulatory duty should be withdrawn on polyester and cotton yarn.

He also pointed out that spinners were adding viscous in cotton yarn. “Spinners only mention count of yarn without any specification of the product in addition to its ingredients,” he said and added that spinners must be directed to clearly mention the percentage of cotton and viscous so that the users could avoid any possible loss during the process of weaving and printing.

(APP)

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