ISLAMABAD, May 30: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has blamed the economic policies of the government for highest-ever trade deficit. The economic policies focus on high growth, generating more revenue and reducing debt-to-GDP ratio and not on increasing exports or reducing the trade deficit, the minister said while replying to a question at a press conference here on Wednesday.
Asked to comment on possible devaluation of the rupee, the minister said that it was not his domain to comment on it as it was a State Bank’s issue. However, he said that the current monetary policy was just focusing on curtailing the inflation in the country.
To another question, he said that the exports would be around the target of $18.6 billion by end June 2007 but he was not sure that the export target would be achieved.
Referring to the meeting of the sub group on trade he said that the group would monitor the impact of EU‘s trade policies in the region with special reference to Pakistan’s preferential access to EU markets and will identify possible options for improvement in bilateral trade.
Mr Khan said that both sides also agreed that the sub group on trade should meet in the autumn of 2007 with a view to initiating a study in consultation with Pakistan on the impact of these trade policies.
Responding to Pakistan’s request for FTA the EC delegation said that its “global strategy” focuses on multilateralism as the preferred option but FTAs are also negotiated based on two-fold criteria - market size and growth and the level of protection against EU exports.
Pakistan argued that it satisfies the criterion of market size and growth and the current level of protection against EU exports was minimal, which may not be treated as a penalty for Pakistan.
Answering a question the minister said that Pakistan had raised the request for FTA with EU in the year 2003 but no positive response came from the EU side.
Regarding FTA with Singapore, the minister said that the treaty had been fast tracked and it was hoped to be finalised in near future. He said that next meeting will possibly be held in August.
He said that Indonesia would now also consider the FTA agreement with Pakistan because of the latter’s agreement with Malaysia, which extends preferential duty on palm oil.
To a question the minister agreed that many G-33 countries have criticised Pakistan’s report on special products. However, he claimed that many developed and developing countries support Pakistan’s stand on treatment of special products. He said that removal of subsidies on export would help Pakistan to get maximum share for its farm products.