April 7, 2006	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 8, 1427

KARACHI, April 6: Tariq Ikram, Minister of State and Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau, held a meeting with Pillip Williams, senior adviser on trade support institutions, International Trade Centre, Geneva, and discussed with him the collaboration between the EPB and the proposed TDAP with the ITC.

Mr Williams informed the EPB chief that under the EU’s Trade Related Technical Assistance Programme there was a provision for setting up of a WTO cell at the EPB as well as establishing a WTO reference centre, says press release issued here on Thursday.

Mr Ikram was also informed that the funds were available with the ITC for this purpose. “If an approval is received from Pakistan’s commerce ministry, then the ITC could move forward and send a team of officers to Pakistan in four weeks to work on the project,” Mr Williams added.

He said that if the ITC was requested to help with the restructuring process, then it would require the study that was done earlier by the Asian Development Bank and also the TDAP’s draft act.

However, he stressed that the assistance requested on the restructuring project would be considered by the ITC, but in view of the ITC’s current ongoing projects in Pakistan, it would be a secondary issue.