The United States and Pakistan are holding each other responsible for the delay in much awaited Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that has been considered a breakthrough in the Pak-US bilateral relations, sources revealed.
The representative of the US side claims that the BIT draft has been finalized for the signing. The American officials were of the view that they have finalized the modalities of the agreement and Pakistani side working on the technicalities of the BIT pact.
While on the other side Pakistani authorities are claiming that ball is in the Americans court and the BIT could be sign when and where the US authorities say.
The treaty between both countries was earlier expected to be signed during this month but now it has been delayed for unspecific period. A high level official of Board of Investment (BOI) told this agency that international agreements were not taken place over night as it was time taking process.
“Pakistan does not seem that the Bilateral Investment Treaty between both countries could be sealed during current financial year 2012-13,”the official said, adding that there were many financial and defence related issues remained unresolved during recently held talks between both countries. The US officials are confident that the treaty would be signed in the current fiscal.
A 6-member US team held talks with Board of Investment officials on 27-28th August to discuss unresolved issues of considerable importance to conclude the BIT. Pak-US BIT started in 2004 and continued till 2006 but many issues remained unresolved. The biggest stumbling block was arbitration rules in case of any dispute.
After a five-year deadlock, the Board of Investment took the initiative to restart the negotiation process last year. It is pertinent to mention here that Saleem H.Mandviwalla last month expressed the hope that BIT will lead to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries, resulting in market access and increase in exports to the US markets and more investment from the US as both the countries had already signed draft of the treaty earlier this year.
