GUJRANWALA, March 25: World Trade Organisation (WTO) experts have stressed the need for raising awareness about WTO laws among Gujranwala businessmen so that local ceramics, sanitary fittings, sanitary wear and fans industries are flourished.

They said this at a seminar on ‘Free trade arrangements, regional trade arrangements and opportunities for industrial sector’ held at a local hotel on Tuesday. The Punjab government’s WTO cell and Gujranwala Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) arranged the event.

Punjab Government’s Adviser on WTO Inamul Haq said the Gujranwala’s industries had a great potential to enhance their exports through focusing on the value addition of their exports products under the WTO regime.

He urged businessmen to focus on the diversification of traditional to non-traditional export items for enhancing the exports.

Mr Haq said the local industries must be modernised under the WTO laws and that the promotion of relationship between the private sector and the government was vital for promotion of businessmen.

He said WTO trade laws provided global trade advantages, challenges and threads to the traders of the developing countries.

He said WTO trade laws focused on the multilateral trade system, which had regulated the international trade for the first time in the global history of the trade. He said the developed countries had reduced their trade tariffs even to the three per cent, while these trade tariffs were very high in most of the developing countries, including Pakistan.

He said the developing countries were trying to bring down their trade tariffs for maximum benefits of global trade under the WTO regime.

Mr Haq said that the government was trying to reduce communication gap between the private sector and the government and for this purpose the government would help businessmen improve the national economy.

Deputy Commerce Secretary Manzoor Kayani said WTO’s General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) had also ended the decades old global trade discrimination, besides eliminating the quantitative restrictions. He said the trade tariff binding was also needed for global trade advancement and transparency.

Federation of Pakistan Camber of Commerce and Industry Consultant Muhammad Sulaiman Khan said the government must cooperate with the private sector, especially in the export sector.

Smeda Provincial Chief Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry said even though the WTO provided equal business opportunities for all the countries, apprehensions were still there about it, which needed to be clarified.

Planning and Development’s Muhammad Ejaz Husain and WTO Planning Officer Arooj Irshad also spoke.

ACQUITTED: The Anti-Terrorism Court No 2 acquitted six kidnap-for-ransom accused as prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.