July 29, 2006	Saturday	Rajab 2, 1427

KARACHI, July 28: The pre-shipment inspection clause in trade policy of 1998-99 that was renewed time and again is said to be contradictory to the Pakistan Standard Quality Control (PSQC) Act. Under the act it is mandatory for every organisation carrying out Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) to register with the PSQC.

In a statement issued to the press on Friday, Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) President Zulfikar Thaver said the trade policy was defective and needed to be corrected.

He said further that the Quality Review Committee (QRC) of the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) was conducting the PSI without getting registered or listed with the PSQC.

Mr Thaver said the QRC recently applied for registration with the PSQC but the same was rejected, as it did not comply with the requirements and laid down conditions of the PSQC Act.

He urged the Export Promotion Bureau chairman to take serious notice of this non-compliance and also asked the ministry of commerce to remove firms operating illegally. Mr Thaver requested the EPB chairman to resolve this issue soon.

The PSI, he pointed out, was the prerogative of buyers and the rice exporters were getting repeat orders and had excellent quality control systems in their most modern units.

He said further that exports of non-basmati rice had increased after the removal of PSI condition and exports of basmati rice would also increase if the condition of PSI was removed from basmati rice as well. The Unisame chief said in most transactions foreign buyers nominated their own PSI company and getting the cargo inspected again by the QRC was time consuming and expensive.