TDAP chief urges Saarc to go the EU way
KARACHI: If India and Pakistan want to strengthen trade relations, they will have to separate politics from business, said Trade Development Authority of Pakistan’s (TDAP) chief S.M. Muneer on Tuesday.
Stressing the need to promote regional trade among the eight-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), he said that total trade currently stands at $6.7 billion only.
Citing example of the European Union (EU), he said that around 70 per cent of the trade is being carried out among the 28 member states. By contrast, Saarc countries prefer others over their neighbours for trade.
Around 70 per cent of the European Union trade is being carried out among the 28 member states
If India and China can deepen trade to around $100bn despite their history of confrontation, Pakistan and India’s reluctance to expand bilateral trade from the current meagre level of $3bn (with $2.5bn imports and $500 million exports to India) was not justified, he said.
Muneer added that after achieving great success of ‘Aalishan Pakistan’, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir has directed the TDAP to hold another exhibition in New Delhi in April next year.
He said the exhibition generated a business of around $15m along with future prospect deals valued at $20m-25m signed during business-to-business meetings.
Briefing media about the exhibition at TDAP’s head office at FTC building, he said that the response from Indian trade community as well as consumers was overwhelming and around 500,000 people visited the four-day event.
Responding to a question, the TDAP chief said that with the shortage of power and gas in Punjab and water in Karachi, the export target of $35bn set for this fiscal year could not be achieved. Moreover, the sit-ins in Islamabad have also had negative impact on the economy, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, TDAP Secretary Rabiya Javeri said keeping in view the encouraging response of Indian consumers, the exhibitors were eagerly awaiting TDAP’s announcement for the next event there and advised that focus should also be on other major cities of that country.
Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014