KARACHI: In order to boost the exports, the Ministry of
Commerce (MoC) was in effort to broaden the horizon of trade policy of
Pakistan. Therefore, strategic trade policy framework was designed to provide
environment, conducive to exporters and to establish consistent and predictable
policy regime as well. Moreover, Ministry of Commerce was aiming to facilitate,
develop and promote export oriented industries and improve competitiveness of
Pakistani products with regard to regional competitors.

Noman Aslam
Director General, Trade Policy MoC said this while speaking at a roundtable
titled ‘Achieving Export Competitiveness in Pakistan’ organized by Sustainable
Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Thursday. Terming the role of media
highly important, he said that media could portray a positive image of Pakistan
as a basic step to embark upon effective trade.

Gonzalo J Varela, Senior Economist with the World Bank
Group (WBG) highlighted the role of trade as a vehicle of growth in developing
countries over the last 30 years. He said that goods and services in Pakistan and
other developing countries had grown exponentially since the 1980s. However,
the downturn in Pakistan’s export sector in recent years, attributed to the
country’s inability to fully harness its trade potential. Hence, effective
policy initiatives to reduce tariffs and the cost-of-doing business in order to
increase the competitiveness of Pakistani in international markets, he
concluded.

Naida Rocha, Senior Economist, WBG, with the help of a
detailed presentation suggested that Pakistan had a protectionist,
discretionary trade policy and tariff liberalization efforts in capital and
intermediate goods was not enough often remained in-consistent with other
policy measures. She added further that there were different mechanism and
exemptions that were skewed towards larger firms. Hence, trade facilitation and
logistics was needed to be improved to enhance GVC integration, she said.

Dr.
Vaqar Ahmad, Deputy Executive Director SDPI earlier opined that in terms of
trading across border, Pakistan was ranked at 171 out of 190 in the Doing
Business Index, making the country one of the least open for exports and
imports of merchandise. The costs of both border- and documentary-compliance
remain higher than competitor economies. Likewise, the exporting entities also
continue to face rising cost of doing business.

He
suggested that to enhance export competitiveness, the essential measures that
needed to be taken include  bringing the cost of energy and other
utilities down and  correcting the
currently fragmented tax regime prevalent at the federal and provincial
level. Besides,  rationalizing the overall burden of regulations on
businesses including tax, environmental, labour, building and other
municipal-level regulations and looking into ways in which public and private
sector both contribute to the improvements in product sophistication through
adoption of new technology were equally important, he concluded. Ends____