WASHINGTON, Nov 28: Pakistan will ask the US to start negotiations for concluding a foreign trade agreement and for allowing greater market access to Pakistani goods when Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar meets senior US officials in Washington this week.

An FTA allows enhanced market access to a friendly country and Pakistan has been seeking this status since joining the US-led war against terror in September 2001.

President Pervez Musharraf had raised this issue with President George W. Bush at a meeting in Washington in December 2004, and again in September 2005 in New York.

“President Musharraf requested for start of FTA negotiations with the US. So, obviously, that will be the focal point of my discussions with US officials as well,” the minister told reporters in Washington.

He said the US had committed over $510 million for earthquake victims and “we are very grateful for that” but “we also need enhanced market access” to deal with negative effects of the earthquake on the Pakistani economy. “We are particularly interested in textile and apparel sectors,” he added.

More than 85 per cent of Pakistan’s exports to the US comprise textiles and apparel. Pakistan is seeking greater access to textile and apparel markets in the US but faces a tough resistance from domestic producers, particularly in the politically sensitive South.

Mr Khan, however, recalled that recently the US signed an FTA with Jordan which led to a massive increase in Jordanian exports to the US — from $17 million to more than $1 billion a year.

The US, he said, also had signed preferential trade agreements with Andean and Sub-Saharan nations and the preferences given to them and Jordan include textile and apparels. “Any trade talks between the US and Pakistan that do not include textile and apparel sectors are meaningless for us,” said the minister. “What we are seeking is not unusual. We already are a strategic ally of the US and we want to be an economic ally too.”

The minister said that domestic US producers should not be alarmed by Pakistan’s efforts to enhance its exports to the US because Pakistan’s textile exports to this country are less than two per cent of the total textile imports of the US.

Mr Khan said Pakistan had set the target of an 18 per cent increase in its overall exports during the current fiscal year and in the first four months, Pakistan’s exports increased by 23 per cent, which was higher than the targeted increase.

But Pakistan’s exports to the US increased by 12 per cent last year which is less than the national target. “That’s why we are attempting to further increase our exports to the US,” said the minister, adding that Islamabad was urging Washington to lower duties on items of interest to Pakistan. “We feel that these duties are still very high.”

The commerce minister, who arrived in Washington late Sunday evening, is scheduled to meet senior US officials on Monday and Tuesday, including those at the commerce department, state department, National Security Council and the US trade representative’s office.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the minister will meet US exporters and importers in Los Angeles and New York, as part of Pakistan’s efforts to enhance its trade relations with the United States.