Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) organized a seminar in collaboration with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) on trade normalization between Pakistan and India.
The seminar held at the chamber on Wednesday was aimed at generating awareness among business community and educate traders about normalization of trade between the two countries.
Prominent among those who attended the seminar included KPCCI senior vice president Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, vice president Abid Salam, former KPCCI president Ghazanfar Bilour, president Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sajida Zulfiqar, vice president Nasira Lughmani, Dr Manzoor Ahmed, former Pakistan ambassador to World Trade Organization (WTO), Director General (DG) TDAP Tariq Parvez and others. Dr Manzoor briefed the audience on why Pakistan should have trade with India, what are its benefits and why these trade ties be normalized and expanded. He said Pakistan was mostly trading with the European Union (EU) and the US. Dr Manzoor said Pakistan trade was growing but in a wrong manner. Dr Manzoor said smaller economies should do trade with bigger economies to grow and strengthen their economies and gave the example of Turkey and Mexico. Dr Manzoor suggested Pakistan should increase its exports. Dr Manzoor said all WTO members are bound to give MFN status to their neighbors and if they don’t, they would be violating WTO agreement.
Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said Pakistan would have to better its relations with its neighbors to promote trade. Sarhadi said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was an important province and therefore Peshawar dry port which was running temporarily needed to be modernized to export goods. He said exports had badly suffered due to poor condition of railway. Sarhadi demanded the government modernize the dry without which exports were not possible. He said the dry port was temporally established in 1986 and is still running temporarily. Sarhadi said efforts be made to set up a dry port trust at Aza Khel near Peshawar. Sarhadi said the railways could earn Rs 15 to 20 billion by running goods trains.
Regarding the Afghan transit trade, he said the province would not benefit from the new agreement as it had rendered a large number of people unemployed. He said amended agreement would have negative impact on our economy. Sarhadi said the decision by Pakistan to give India the Most Favorite Nation (MFN) status was a welcome step. But, he added, the government must take all stakeholders into confidence before implementing its decision and make a negative list of items. He said the government would have to put pressure on India to remove non-tariff barriers.
He said TDAP was not playing an effective role due to which KP exporters were having problems. Sarhadi demanded the government include businessmen in TDAP foreign delegations.
DG TDAP underlined the need for exchange of delegations and exhibitions, saying TDAP was shortly holding an exhibition in Delhi. The DG said businessmen from Pakistan and India should hold meetings without which the trade ties would not normalize.
He said his department would fully cooperate with women entrepreneurs. He said TDAP agenda was to educate exporters.
