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| September 25, 2005 | Sunday | Sha'aban 20, 1426 |
US, UK seek improved security situation: Removal of negative travel advisory
ISLAMABAD, Sept 24: The United States and Britain have linked the removal of negative travel advisories with substantial improvement in the security situation in Pakistan and taking further harsh measures against fundamentalists and extremists, it is learnt.
Informed sources told Dawn on Saturday both the countries were “unwilling” to remove negative travel advisories for their citizens and investors wishing to visit Pakistan despite repeated requests by the foreign office.
The Bush Administration and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government have in fact “toughened” their stand after July 7 suicide bombings in London. The right wing Islamic parties, sources said, were considered “dangerous” for the US and England’s interests in Pakistan.
The government was told to strictly deal with Jihadi elements and extremists with a view to remove the negative perceptions of the US and UK’s investors and citizens who otherwise were inclined to visit Pakistan both for tourism and investment purposes.
“The US government particularly feels that under the prevailing security and law and order situation, it is difficult to think about any open or free trade with Pakistan”, a source said.
It was in that backdrop, the sources said, the United States was reluctant to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Pakistan and that the proposed talks over the issue between the two countries in November will not be materialised.
Rather, the US government looked more inclined to sign FTA with India, and directed its Commerce Department to go slow by stretching the negotiations with Pakistan over the issue till December 2005.
Pakistan was expecting that the US government would simultaneously sign FTA with Singapore and Islamabad. “But they preferred Singapore and now they are more interested to sign FTA with India and this is not fair especially when our government went an extra mile to not only hunt down over 700 terrorists but also offered full support on many other issues”, a source said.
Pakistan was consistently being told to improve investment climate by significantly restoring law and order situation across the country.
The US government had earlier indicated to sign FTA with Pakistan in November and that was why Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar looked optimistic about it. “But this is not a very simple matter and involves political issues”, another source said.
There had been three rounds so far held between the two sides to sign FTA. The last round was conducted in London on Feb 7, 2005.
“Some of the legal issues are still being examined to negotiate and finalize the FTA between the two sides”, another source said adding that Pakistan was looking for further export of its fish, fruits, vegetable and rice etc. to the United States under the FTA.
He said Pakistan was also given to understand after Bush/Musharraf meeting in 2004 that the volume of current Pakistani trade items including engineering goods, surgical goods and jewellry could also be increased under the new agreement.
Besides FTA, Pakistan and the United States were also negotiating to sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to facilitate each others’ investors.
Earlier, TIFA was signed between Pakistan and the United States. “The main objective of the proposed BIT is to protect US investment from any danger or risk of being nationalised”, a source said.
However, the sources said that differences over BIT continued to exist and that was why no agreement could be signed over it.
Pakistan was asking the United States to sign the proposed treaty by dropping its demand that in case of an arbitration only the Washington based International Centre for Settlement of Disputes (ICSID) should be approached for a decision.
Pakistan was reluctant to accept the US demand regarding dispute resolution mechanism and said some other international forums, other than ICSID, should also be considered.
Islamabad continued to insist that the proposed treaty be made “flexible” and that unilateral clauses being proposed should be avoided to have some workable bilateral investment treaty.
Negotiations which were lately held both in London and Islamabad remained inconclusive due to the persistent US demand that in case of any arbitration the US investors should be allowed to approach the Washington-based ICSID).
Pakistan while agreeing to have an arbitration clause, called for dispute resolution in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNICITRAL), Vienna (Austria).
“But unfortunately there was no agreement as both sides continued to differ with each other on dispute resolution mechanism for the US investors”, a source added.
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