ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: Pakistan has proposed a range of amendments to the United States for consideration of the legislation for establishment of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in the terrorist-prone areas of Pak-Afghan border.

An official source told Dawn on Tuesday that the amendments were related to coverage of areas, inclusion of more items for manufacturing in these zones for duty free export to the United States market and issues of rules of origin.

According to the official Pakistan has proposed to include the whole of Balochistan for establishment of ROZs on the pretext that it would help in providing more employment opportunities to the people of the province.

Currently, only the border districts of Balochistan with Afghanistan have been included in the ROZs list of eligible areas.

It has also been demanded that the category 338 (men and boys knit shirts) and 339 (women and girls shirts) should be included in the list of items for manufacturing in these zones.

The official said that Pakistan was also pushing for more relaxation in the rules of origin, which would actually determine the status of the products to be exported to the US market.

The United States plans to impose ceiling on certain textile products from the proposed ROZs to protect its own domestic industry. This restriction will be on the pattern of China to allow partial import from Pakistan of cotton- based products.

The official said that the legislation would be presented in the US Congress in the next few weeks. It was expected that the law would be ready for implementation in a period of around three months.

USA is Pakistan’s single largest trading partner with volume of trade nearly at $5.8 billion in year 2005-06.

USA is generally a low tariff market with average duty on manufactured goods at 3.9 per cent.