KARACHI, July 23: Business and industry on Tuesday gave mixed reaction on new trade policy, and there was a general feeling that most of the measures adopted by the commerce minister in the document fall short of the expectations of export trade.

The Towel Manufacturers’ Association of Pakistan (TMA) chairman S.M.A. Rizvi said despite the fact the there are plus points in the Trade Policy, it falls short of the expectations of the exporters.

“The major portion of the policy consists of advising and surmising the exporters what to do for achieving export target of $10.4 billion,” he asserted.

He said there is hardly any such measure that could give fiscal relief to export trade, which is presently faced with high input cost, and is badly in need of such incentives which may help exports to stay competitive in the world market.

However, the TMA chief appreciated some of the measures like waving of import and export registration condition, which, he said, would greatly help exporters from wasting time in documentation and paper work.

He further said that under the new trade policy the new system of ELVIS (electronic license visa system) will be adopted which will help the EPB to reconcile the figures of exports to avoid over-shipments and fake visas.

Collection of Export Development Surcharge (EDS) from export proceeds through the banks, Rizvi said, is a good move as this will ensure that a deduction is made only when exports have been made.

The convener of Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) Zulfikar Thaver while appreciating a number of measures pointed out that the issue of double shipment inspection has been totally ignored by the commerce minister in his trade policy.

“He should have waived the condition of double shipment inspection on Basmati rice because he had himself agreed that once the rice is inspected by internationally reputed company there is no need for a second PSI by QRC,” he said.

Thaver said that small and medium enterprises were expecting that the new trade policy would give special treatment to SMEs and also to commercial importers and exporters.