KARACHI, April 30: The European Union or for that matter any interested group in some other countries with automobile export potential to Pakistan could take up the issue of market access for their vehicles to Pakistan.

This warning came from a business leader Engineer M.A. Jabbar in his lecture before the officers of the Commerce Ministry at the Export Promotion Bureau. Engineer M.A. Jabbar is the Vice President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry and incharge WTO Resource Centre at the FPCCI.

The Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIM), he informed the officials, had come to be identified with automobile industry only in Pakistan but its implications were far reaching on business activities in any country.

The TRIMS agreement prohibits WTO member countries from applying any trade related investment measure that discriminates against imported products. It also outlaws investment measures that quantitatively restrict imports.

He informed the officials that Pakistan's indigenization policy referred to the substitution of imported components and sub components with locally manufactured ones. Pakistan, he pointed out, had been pursuing the indigenization policy in engineering industry through deletion programme since 1987.

In 1995, the deletion programme was reviewed in Pakistan in view of the WTO agreements on TRIMs that gave developing countries a five-year period to phase out deletion programme. Therefore, the deletion was converted into an industry specific deletion programme.

He said TRIMs seek transparency in business by the national governments as it opposes discrimination between national and foreign origin investments. Import substitution, Jabbar made it clear, had no place in TRIMs agreement which demands correction in national policies unless time extension has been allowed.

He said the application of TRIMs bars measures such as denying access for export of raw material under policy influence exercised by processing and value adding industry on the national governments. This results in price depression and denial of material support contents of policies providing non-actionable subsidies to exporters.

The FPCCI leader quoted examples and pointed out that value-added textile sector in Pakistan asks government to restrict yarn export. He gave many other examples in present policies which may classify to be disallowed by multilateral agencies in respect of TRIMs.