Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has urged the government to follow go-slow policy in phasing out negative list for trade with India. Addressing to a seminar on post Most Favoured Nation (MFN) implication for industrial sectors of Pakistan, ICCI President, Yassar Sakhi Butt, said that business community expected that the government will create an atmosphere after taking the ground realities in consideration before giving MFN status to India to create a healthy competition towards both sides of the boarder.
He said that no industry can draw its future strategy until unless a clear and consistent policy is there as well as availability of basic necessities on competitive rates. He proposed that the government should adopt a go-slow policy in phasing out negative list for trade with India and address the core issues like power shortage, high energy cost and soaring mark-up rates for enabling our industries to compete effectively in Indian market.
Mrs Shaista Sohail, Joint Secretary, Policy and Planning Wing, Ministry of Industries highlighted the role of Industries Ministry and said that it was facilitating and promoting industrial sector of the country as par the rules of business and also started 40 new projects to improve the energy situation in the country. Commenting upon the MFN status to India, she said that Pakistan is facing the uneven playing field in the region due to various domestic constraints, which needed to be turned into level playing field.
She said that government has approved negative list of 1,209 items and it's phasing out till December, 2012 for India, thus, there is a dire need that India should also remove non-tariff barriers, custom duties and other Para tariff barriers, which have hampered the attempts of increasing trade volumes from Pakistan to India. She pointed out that price of electricity tariff was highest in Pakistan, which stood at 15.1 percent per unit against India 10.5 percent, Bangladesh 10.75 percent and Sri Lanka 10.75 that needed to be reduced by adopting renewable energy measures as competitiveness would be the key to survive under the MFN status regime.-PR
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