ISLAMABAD, May 29: While identifying several weak areas in the trade policy, the experts urged the government to strengthen the domestic commerce sector by utilising the potential of small scale products.
Experts representing public sector, private sector and civil society organisations shared their views and formulated recommendations in a discussion on “Emerging food markets, small producers, SMEs and Trade Policy of Pakistan” organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday.
They advised the government to invest more in research, rationalise tariff application system, shift from low value-added crops to high value-added crops, introduce effective regulation mechanism, and bring harmonisation in different government departments to avoid the exploitation of small farmers and producers and to reap the benefits of international trade for the country.
The experts emphasised the need for the harmonisation of the policies, scope of work, mandate and obligations of different departments, institutions and ministries to avoid the horizontal overlapping. They advocated for the public-private partnership for the inclusion of small farmers in the market chain.
They endorsed the idea of extensive research in the market information system. The participants had a detailed discussion on the idea of contract farming and the majority of them unanimously endorsed it. They said that the tariff system should be rationalised in the favour of SMEs.
Representative of Agro Business Development Fund Asmat Ullah Khan wanted the government to make research-based interventions in domestic commerce and diversify trade tools to get the maximum benefits from the international trade.
Ali Qazalbash of Unido recommended to the government to introduce proper information gathering and dissemination system of the market, priority to standardisation, rationalisation of tariff application to avoid exploitation of small producers and loss of foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail market.
The participants also urged the government to increase the budget for research, make extension services effectively functional and able to deliver at the grass-root level, and establish a credible link between the research institutes and small scale producers.
