KARACHI: President FPCCI, Zakaria Usman Friday called for the revival of American GSP status to Pakistan; realizing that Pakistan has been playing a front-line role in the war against terrorism and facing serious social and economic problems.
" GSP status has been expired for a long time and we are still waiting for its revival," he said during a meeting with Chad Peterson, Political and Economic Chief of US Consulate General here at the Federation House, said press release.
The President, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), said the United States Government should acknowledge that Pakistan's army is still fighting a decisive battle in North Waziristan to eliminate terrorism and the country is incurring huge expenses on war against terrorism. As a result, it is facing a great task of settling internally displaced persons (IDPs).
"Moreover, we are facing shortage of energy due to which unemployment in the country prevails ultimately creating law and order situation. Even then, he added, we have achieved our exports targets.
Zakaria Usman said that Pakistan is playing leading role at different regional platforms and having their headquarters here like SAARC Chamber of Commerce, D-8 Chamber of Commerce and Islamic Chamber of Commerce. The chairmanship of the ECO Chamber of Commerce will be transferred to Pakistan next month for a period three years.
Pakistan is one of those country which have a great potential for trade with other countries as it has specialized in different fields like textile, surgical, sports and leather and diversifying its exports from traditional to non-traditional items.
United States' Political and Economic Chief Chad Peterson here at the US Consulate General said that despite the fact of terrorism and problem of settlement of IDPs in view of the army operation against terrorism, the economy of Pakistan is strong. He said that after the airport incident in Karachi the mind set up of foreign businessmen changed which obviously shadowed negative impact of the bilateral trade of Pakistan with other countries.
Pakistani fresh fruits are very famous in USA and it has big capacity to cater to the requirments of American, European Union and Central Asian markets.
Responding to the concerns of the President FPCCI about GSP status, he said it is the discretion of American Congress to decide. However, he will strongly support the vision of FPCCI to his government.
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