February 4, 2002	Monday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1422

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NEW YORK, Feb 3: Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said here on Saturday that Bush administration would like to help Pakistan through various stakeholders, like US manufacturers etc, for which it would have to work through Congress and pass certain laws.

Talking to Dawn after meeting US commerce secretary Evans and other officials of the US administration, he said Mr Evans said he would continue discussions on the issue during President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Washington later in the month.

He said that during the meetings he called upon the business and political leaders of the developed world to provide market access to Pakistan and other developing countries enabling them to fight poverty.

Mr Shaukat Aziz said during his meetings with the Director-General of World Trade Organization, Mike Moore, US Trade Representative Bob Zoellick, and the ministers attending the World Economic Forum, he stressed that what “the developing countries really need is market access to the developed world along with capacity building”.

In his meeting with the US Secretary of Commerce, Donald Evans, and two other undersecretaries of commerce, Mr Aziz said he made a forceful case for the US to provide “better market access to Pakistan products particularly textiles and leather, which could be achieved by lowering tariff for Pakistan”.

“All Pakistan seeking is a level-playing field with other countries who have similar concessions and it is not our intentions to displace the local industry here,” he told Secretary Evans. He urged the US officials that the Commerce Department “should reallocate what is being given to other countries,” adding, “our textile industry suffered after Sept 11, due to cancellations of orders, etc., and the need for market access is therefore even more pronounced.”

He said he told the US officials that “we do recognize the domestic concerns the local industry has in giving access to Pakistan, by lowering the tariff,” but he argued other countries have received the lower tariffs as well. All we are asking is similar benefits, a level-playing field, he added.

The finance minister stressed reducing tariffs on Pakistani textile and leather goods and allowing more exports out of Pakistan would help the country reduce poverty. “Every garment exported from Pakistan feeds a family and as such helps fight poverty,” he said.

Mr Aziz and the US officials also discussed possibilities of increasing US investment in Pakistan, particularly in the areas of oil and gas and the information technology and contract manufacturing. “Pakistan offers excellent pool of trained manpower which can be used to manufacture products in Pakistan,”