July 19, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 03, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 18: The trade policy announced on Wednesday outlines new measures for regulating import of certain commodities. According to the measures, a new provision has been included in the import policy order (IPO) that import and export of goods for transit under the agreement for traffic in transit among the China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan and Pakistan shall be subject to all prohibitions and restrictions notified and reflected anywhere in the IPO.

In order to prevent misuse of imported narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, it has been decided that pharmaceutical units having valid drug manufacturing licenses will be allowed to import these substances on the authorisation of the Ministry of Health.

Such imports will also be subject to meeting the conditions prescribed for import of pharmaceutical raw material.

The government decided that import of formaldehyde will be allowed only to industrial consumers who have valid licenses issued by the concerned environmental agency/dept under Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1979.

To discourage import of stolen and chassis tampered vehicles under the personal baggage, gift and transfer of residence schemes, it has been decided that in addition to confiscation of the said vehicles, the importers will also be liable to such penalty as may be imposed by any other law for the time being in force. The re-export facility will also not be available for such vehicles.

Pakistan has adopted HS 2007 version through the budgetary measures 2007-08.

The transposition from HS 2002 to HS 2007 version has resulted into numerous changes affecting description of quite a few items and import status of certain other items. H.S code in the Trade Policy will be harmonised with the new system.

In the existing trade policy, there is no uniform indication of PCT codes which in certain cases are at four, six and eight digit level. This creates problems at the automated customs computerised system. In the Trade Policy, eight digit PCT codes on the basis of HS 2007 will be given to facilitate the automated clearances.

The list of items importable from India will be re-arranged in descending order based on the new HS Nos. It will make the consultation convenient. The definitions of the terms “Job-lot” and “stock-lot” goods as given in CGO 12/2002 will be incorporated in the IPO.

The IPO does not define the “Rules of Origin” for imports coming from countries with whom no Preferential Trade Agreement has been signed. Such rules of origin will be defined and made part of Import Policy Order. This step will help stop items coming (through transit countries) from the countries wherefrom imports are banned.

To make the policy transparent in respect of Ozone Depleting Substances, it has been decided that the Import Policy Order will clearly mention the name of Ministry i.e. Ministry of Environment responsible for allocating quota for Ozone Depleting Substances.

At present, import of waste, parings and scrap of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) is allowed to industrial consumers subject to certification from the exporting country and by PCSIR who expressed inability to certify the hazardous free nature of the imported scrap.

It has been decided that the condition of certification by the PCSIR in the policy will be substituted with mandatory certification by the government of the exporting country or certification by a pre-shipment inspection company in the export country specialised in this field.