Pakistan desires market access, increased investment in US

February 27, 2020: Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Industries and Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood Thursday said Pakistan desired market access to the United States and their investors to increase their investment here.

“We also prioritize for increasing our exports to achieve the objective of exports-led growth besides enhancing the bilateral trade with US,” Abdul Razak Dawood said this while addressing a press briefing.

The adviser said during a meeting with the US Secretary of Commerce they discussed the issues related to bilateral trade and enhanced market access for Pakistan.

Razak said Pakistan was committed to acquire US Generalized System of Preference (GSP) programme, which provided nonreciprocal, duty free tariff treatment to certain products imported from designated beneficiary developing countries (BDCS).

He said that as part of ongoing efforts to create jobs and economic growth on both sides, the two countries had held held regular consultations in May last under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). The TIFA meetings goal was to expand bilateral trade and investment in goods and services in future.

Razak said Pakistan and the US also discussed ways to enhance the US investment in energy, oil and gas, agriculture, food processing and e-commerce besides increasing trade in agricultural goods and medicines.

He said this was a high time for the US companies which invested in Pakistan for increasing bilateral economic and trade relations.

He said the US secretary's visit was the outcome of the previous discussions between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump to promote bilateral trade and enhanced economic engagements.

The advisor also suggested that the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) was appropriate forum, which also can help in developing of new businesses in Pakistan. The IDFC involved in funding of $60 billion for all the developing countries.

He said that about IDFC assistance, Secretary Ross sounded positive and suggested that the commerce ministry should propose projects in that regard.

The advisor said that the US also agreed to improve the travel advisory for Pakistan for bringing mega brands and US investment in different sectors to Pakistan to create employment opportunities.

Razak also hoped that Pakistan would achieve trade benefits from GSP-Plus provided by European Union for 10 year till 2023.

He said that Pakistan wanted to get access to the potential markets of African region, Russia and North America for enhancing the trade liberalization to achieve the objective of export led growth.

APP