October 16, 2003	Thursday	Sha'aban 19, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Oct 15: Pakistan and the US are likely to negotiate various measures for enhancing the volume of bilateral trade during the visit of US assistant trade representative (USATR) for South Asia, Ashley Wills from Thursday.

Commerce ministry officials said the two sides would take up the issues of free trade agreement between Pakistan and the US as well as enhancement of the US textile quotas.

Commerce minister Humayun Akhtar in his meetings with Mr Wills is likely to urge fixation of a date for a meeting of Trade and Investment Facilitation Agreement’s (TIFA) council to negotiate measures that would lead to a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

The commerce minister would also brief the visiting US representative on various measures being taken by Pakistan for enhancement of exports along with measures for facilitating the importers.

The post-Cancun scenario and Pakistan’s position on various WTO agreements would also come under discussion during the meeting, the officials said.

Mr Wills during his stay in Pakistan would meet finance minister, Shaukat Aziz, chairman, CBR, Riaz Ahmad Malik and Secretary, Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Dr Wiqar Masood.

Official statistics made available to Dawn showed that Pakistan’s trade surplus with the US had increased by nearly 20pc to about $2 billion in 2002-03 over $1.5 billion in the previous year.