The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has demanded of the government not to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China without consultation with the stakeholders otherwise this FTA will cause huge damage to the economy and local industry. The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid said that government should not take any decision in haste, as it is a matter of our economic future. "Pakistan is already experiencing huge loss in trade with China while overall trade deficit had already broken all records. In the present scenario FTA with China can be fatal for the country."
He said that health of local industries is miserable due to high cost of doing business, smuggling, complicated taxation system, withholding tax, and non-friendly attitude of the tax officials. On the other hand the Chinese industries, besides their sizes, have a great competitive edge for availability of cheap energy and conducive government policies, which have forced the world's biggest economies to bow down before China, he said.
Malik Tahir said that the business community is unable to understand that why the government is so keen to have FTA with China. Now is not appropriate time to have adventure of FTA with China as more flow of imports will turn Pakistan into a trading place, industrial base would be collapsed and the government would be deprived of revenue besides having the challenges of millions of unemployed people. The LCCI President demanded of the government to defer the second phase of Pak-China FTA and should have a briefed meeting with the stakeholders as one sided decisions have already caused irreparable damage to the economy.
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