October 03, 2006	Tuesday	Ramazan 9, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Oct 2: Pakistan will raise the issue of market access with the United States in trade talks starting here on Tuesday as part of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

A senior official told Dawn on Monday that a high-level US official delegation led by Assistant United States Trade Representative (USTR) Doug Hartwick had arrived here for holding the second round of Pakistan-US Council meeting established under the TIFA.

The council will consider a wide range of commercial issues and set out basic principles underlying the two nations' trade and investment relationship. The council will establish a permanent dialogue with the expectation of expanding trade and investment between the United States and Pakistan.

The first meeting of the council was held in Washington in 2004 where the two sides identified a range of issues, including the initiation of talks on bilateral investment treaty and establishment of a separate institute for the protection of intellectual property rights in Pakistan.

The official said Pakistani officials would raise the issue of market access for Pakistani products, especially textile products that attracted the highest duty as compared to the products coming from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc., cleared at lower duty in the US market because of preferential arrangements for these countries.

Pakistan had already made request for establishment of reconstruction opportunity zones (ROZs) to be established in the tribal and economically depressed areas to fight terrorism. The products manufactured in these zones would be exported at zero duty to the US market.

Other issues to be take up during the two-day meeting included investment, intellectual property rights, taxation, labour issues and law. The meeting would especially review the progress achieved so far in the bilateral investment treaty (BIT).

The official said Pakistan would also raise the issue of starting of negotiation on a free trade agreement (FTA), which the US had agreed to start in early 2005. The US has linked the starting of talks on FTA with signing of the BIT, which was delayed due to differences on some clauses of the agreement.

Besides, Pakistan would also take up the issue of higher tariff for Pakistani products in the US market as compared to the other countries, seeking some relief in this respect. The two sides would review the decisions taken during the first council meeting and its implementation status. The US delegation would particularly review the performance of the newly-established IPRs organization in Pakistan.