KARACHI, March 8: Calling Japan a difficult market, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said on Wednesday that Tokyo did not respond to Islamabad’s proposal of entering into a bilateral preferential trade arrangement.
He told a gathering of the members of the Pakistan Japan Business Forum (PJBF) that Japan was the second largest economy of the world and remained a very important country for Pakistan.
Speaking at the executive council meeting of the PJBF at the residence of the PJBF president Kader Jaffer, the minister urged the exporters to explore possibilities of exporting goods other than textiles to Japan.
“We must identify non-traditional areas of export to Japan,” the minister urged the businessmen and asked them to realize that Japan absorbs high-tech industry products.
He suggested that study groups should be formed to explore prospects of exporting industrial products, services and other goods to Japan.” the minister said.
The minister, who led Pakistan’s delegation at the Doha Round of the WTO meeting, said that Pakistan pursued aggressive trade diplomacy and had taken shelter behind the high tariff walls.
Since then, there had been major reforms in Pakistan and as he claimed, “we are now an example for many developing and even developed countries.” But, he complained that developed countries were not following a bipartisan approach in the international trade, which hurts Pakistan.
For example, he said that the average tariff of the USA on the imports from least developed countries (LDCs) was only 1.5 per cent while for Pakistan it was 10.5 per cent.
He said that the subsidies on agricultural products were set to reduce in the coming years and the Pakistani agriculturists had now a chance to be competitive in their home market.
On the international front, he referred to the ratification of South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) which should bring down tariff to zero to five per cent by 2016. The conclusion of an Early Harvest Programme (EHP) with China had opened opportunities for export of raw material.
Responding to an observation of one of the auto vendor, the minister assured that all safeguards would be provided to the vendors in the face of a cut in tariff on import of cars. “We want to encourage Japanese investment,” he said.
“A new legislation is underway for restructuring the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), which is now better equipped to take up studies on fisheries, shrimps, mining and other areas”, the minister said.
Earlier, PJBF president Kader Jaffer in his welcome remarks spoke of the immense potential of Japan as a business partner and a joint venture collaborator.
