Tag: Trade

LAHORE - The proxy attendance issue remained the hot topic during the Punjab Assembly (PA) session on Friday, as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of the Punjab Assembly (MPA) Sanaullah Mastikhel exchanged hot words with Unification Bloc Member Sheikh Allauddin over the issue.
The heated arguments created a tense situation in the assembly, as PA Speaker Rana Iqbal's ruling was violated thrice but both the treasury and opposition benches did not notice it. The speaker

KARACHI - India, while opposing the trade concession to Pakistan granted by European Union (EU) in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is in a weaker position to oppose the draft bill. According to experts, India which has shown serious reservations over the draft bill forwarded by EU for unilateral market access to Pakistan citing the contravention of World Trade Organization's (WTO) rules, could not muster adequate points to back up its position in the first session of WTO. Given

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Iran signed on Thursday a strategic framework agreement to further deepen their economic relations under the existing Preferential Framework Agreement (PTA) and to enhance bilateral trade from a current $1.2 billion to $5.0 billion within the next five years.
Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Iranian Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari signed the agreement at the conclusion of the sixth Pak-Iran Joint Trade Commission (JTC) meeting here on

KARACHI - To increase bilateral travel trade relations and tourism between Pakistan and USA, the US Consulate General, Karachi, is going to organise a Trade Show, International Pow Wow, from May 21 - 25, 2011 at Moscone Convention Centre in San Francisco, USA.
This was stated by Sohrab Jang and Mohammad Aamir, commercial specialists of the US Consulate Karachi in a briefing held at the office of Travel Agents Association of Pakistan, (TAAP) Karachi. About 70 countries will be

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's trade deficit has swelled by 18.2 percent to $8.14 billion in July-December during the current financial year compared to $6.89 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
According to data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, exports in the first half of the current fiscal year jumped by 20.63 percent to $10.97 billion from $9.09 billion during the same period's last fiscal. Imports during July-December were up by 19.58 percent

ISLAMABAD - Germany and Pakistan have agreed to enhance cooperation in economic, trade and investment fields and to initiate a strategic dialogue to boost bilateral ties, said a joint statement issued here by the foreign office on Monday.
These developments were result of Germany's Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle's visit to Pakistan on January 8th and 9th.
Westerwelle held meetings with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Prime Minister Yusuf

Lahore - Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry said that a 'true God fearing' Muslim dispensed justice without coming under any pressure. He was addressing a batch of 53 civil judges cum judicial magistrates at the conclusion ceremony held at the judicial academy on completion of their pre-posting judicial training. He said that Pakistani culture embedded lies and made the judges' work more difficult.
He advised the newly inducted civil judges to take the culture

KARACHI - China is to clear the blocked Karakoram Highway (KKH) at Attabad and constructing new infrastructure in the affected area in a bid to resume and kick-start bilateral trade through the land route.
The closure of the highway is a major hindrance to trade with China. Islamabad has formally requested Beijing to invest in the effort to repair the route, Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Syed Mehdi Shah told Pakistan Today on Wednesday.
The CM, who was visiting the head

NAROWAL - The Indian Border Security Forces opened indiscriminate firing at the working boundary at Sialkot Shaker Garh sector here on Wednesday to which Pakistani Punjab rangers retaliated immediately.
Indian BSF targeted the Imran Shaheed check post using 35 hand grenades and hundreds of bullets from Ram Pur (India) to which the Pakistani side replied by firing bullets. The issue will be raised in flag meeting with Indian forces, sources said.

KARACHI - Iran will raise the issue of "unofficial trade" with Pakistan, which has expanded for the last few years, in the forth coming session of Pak-Iran Joint Ministerial Commission (JTC).
Iranian Commerce Minister, with other concerned officials, businessmen and importers/exporters would reach Islamabad by the second week of next month to attend the JTC, scheduled to be held in Pakistan on January 12-13, 2011, sources told Pakistan Today.
To prepare the workings of the

LAHORE - In a protest against recent steps taken by the government for privatization and implementation of National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), trade unions of the country collected at Alhamra on Tuesday. Representatives from various organizations spoke of various grievances that workers had.
NIRC is expected to be implemented from June 30, 2011, after which trade unions will not be recognized at a national level, instead only at a provincial level. According to the

MUSCAT - Pakistan and Oman on Monday vowed to move towards a more robust relationship with closer collaboration in the industrial, agricultural, health and education sectors for a brighter future of their peoples.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani met Sultan Qaboos bin Sa`id at his official retreat, and discussed the situation in the region, the challenges being faced by Pakistan at the hands of the extremists and the measures the government was taking to address its economic

MOSCOW - Youth activists in Russia's Urals said powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should trade places with Mikhail Khodorkovsky as a court found the jailed tycoon guilty in his second fraud trial.
Activists from youth movement Oborona said they had painted dozens of stencils depicting the faces of Putin and Khodorkovsky on Sunday night around the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals to call attention to the trial seen as a watershed in Russia's post-Soviet history.
The

LAHORE - METRO Pakistan Managing Director Giovanni Soranzo in an exclusive interview to Pakistan Today highlights challenges faced by the multinational giant in operating in the local environment and the organistation's outlook in Pakistan. He began by discussing the process that brought METRO to Pakistan.
The METRO Group conducts extensive feasibility studies before investing in any country. He acknowledged that though Pakistan is a market of great potential, METRO is solely

SYDNEY - Booming iron ore and coal exports boosted commerce between Australia and top trading partner China by 8.8 percent this year and more than trebled it over the past decade, data showed on Wednesday. The trade department said China remained Australia's largest export market with total shipments growing to $89.7 billion - 17.6 percent of total trade -over the 12 months to June.
"Over the last decade, the share of Australia's two-way trade in goods and services with China

KARACHI: Pakistan's exports to Greece have fallen by 10 percent during the last eight months, while a further decline is expected due to, what the sources call, the unresolved issue of 'double taxation' in shipping and air transport links with Athens.
Beside the taxation issue, the decrease in Greek demand for consumer goods is another reason for the decline in import from Pakistan, sources told Pakistan Today.
According to sources, Pakistan has serious reservations of

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's administration has permitted US firms to do business worth billions of dollars with Iran and other countries that have been officially blacklisted, a report said Friday.
Some 10,000 deals have been allowed under a loophole that permits humanitarian aid despite the sanctions, allowing US companies - including food giants Kraft and Mars - to get around economic blacklists for countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism, the New York