WASHINTONG, Aug 7: Access to US market is a key tool in Pakistan’s drive against extremism, said the federal commerce minister on Tuesday following talks with US officials on trade initiatives.

Mr Humayun Akhtar Khan said US authorities should take a strategic view of its economic ties with Pakistan to attain shared anti-terrorism goals.

“Economically, as well as strategically, to effectively address in a long-term manner, the problem of extremism in that region, it is important to enhance trade,” he told Reuters.

Foremost in Khan's talks with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and other officials in Washington was promoting “reconstruction opportunity zones” under a plan agreed by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and US President George W. Bush in Islamabad in March 2006.

The plan would allow duty-free access to goods made in areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, including tribal areas of Pakistan.

“Even trade should be strategically viewed because it addresses the main problem we are trying to face, which is curbing extremism,” Khan said.

Khan said the Musharraf government hopes to finish nearly three-year-old talks on a bilateral investment treaty with the US. This would add to foreign investment in the country, which drew $8.4 billion last year on the back of deregulation and fast growth.

Stimulating investment and trade would also help Islamabad and Kabul tackle the problem of increasing opium poppy production in Afghanistan.

“When you have young people out of jobs and economically deprived, certainly, whether they go towards terrorism or they go towards poppy growing, such economic measures are a big help,” Khan said.

While Pakistan awaits what it hopes will be swift moves by the US Congress to take up legislation to implement the reconstruction opportunity zones, Khan said he was actively pursuing multilateral and bilateral trade diplomacy.

Pakistan has signed free trade agreements with China and Sri Lanka and is negotiating such a pact with Bangladesh.

It is also seeking to expand trade with India, Khan said, adding “we are very conscious of the fact that our regional trade is much lower than other regions of the world.”

Pakistan is also looking to break deadlocks in the World Trade Organization's Doha round of trade talks, he said.

The WTO is “where we'll get relief and liberalisation in the agricultural trade and in the textile trade.—Reuters