28 March 2004	Sunday	06 Safar 1425

LAHORE, March 27: Pakistan will install seven container scanners - four in Karachi and one each in Chamman, Torkham, and Lahore - at a cost of $6 million for selective container scanning on a "risk basis to take care of the security concerns of foreign buyers".

"Gradually, the number of scanners would be increased to cover the entire trade volume," Central Board of Revenue Chairman Abdullah Yousuf said this while speaking at the inauguration of the Pakistan Compliance Initiative on Saturday.

The measures are being taken by Pakistan to comply with the US Container Security Initiative (CSI) - an initiative put in place by the America after the fateful events of 9/11 to stop smuggling of material that could be used for carrying out any terrorist act.

"We will be taking care of the security aspect compliance in next six months," said Mr Yousuf.

The CSI mainly concerns with customs procedures.

The US has already stationed its officials at 24 mega ports of the world to take care of its security concerns.

"The Americans are considering manning more ports of the world, including Pakistan, with its officials under the CSI. Pakistan is taking it very seriously. We got to comply with it. Moreover, the CBR is trying to automate the entire customs procedures to reduce the clearance time to just one day from seven days," the CBR chairman said.

Mr Yousuf said the CBR would also consider the "proposal to offer tax incentives to companies meting compliance issues to encourage the trade from the country".

In his presidential address, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan maintained that "it was not necessary to meet the compliance issues before the beginning of 2005". But, he quickly said, these could be used by the local industry of the importing countries as non-tariff barriers against Pakistani products from 2005 when the textile quotas abolish.

The minister said the government had done considerable work to change the labour laws, address the issues of standards, and take care of the environment in order to meet the compliance issues.

Mr Khan said the CSI was a serious matter. "The government is aware of the seriousness and taking initiatives to comply with it. "The government was commissioning a study into the CSI and compliance issues in order to encourage trade growth from Pakistan."

Former commerce minister and PCI chairman Abdul Razak Dawood said Pakistan had mills that were absolutely world class. "We just don't have more of them. We (the PCI) are beginning with factories in Lahore and Karachi but will soon include other exporting regions like Sialkot, Faisalabad and others to join," he said.

The PCI is a private sector initiative which will be providing its member companies a kind of consultancy on compliance issues.It will be charging between $2,000 and $10,000 from each member and offering them different level of services, depending upon the amount deposited by them. It will also accept grants from donors for targeted studies, its management said.