ISLAMABAD, Jan 13: Pakistan's foreign trade registered a growth of over 57 per cent during the last three years because of rationalization of tariffs and simplification of procedures as part of the government's macroeconomic reform agenda.

This was stated by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan while giving a briefing to a four-member IMF delegation led by Deputy Managing Director Agustin Carstens here on Thursday. The minister briefed the Fund on the export performance of Pakistan, impact of removal of textile quotas, trade policy and regional trade cooperation.

Mr Khan informed the IMF delegation that Pakistan's external trade, which used to be stagnating around $19.5 billion annually before 2002, was now set to be around $31 billion in 2005, showing a growth of over 57 per cent during a short span of three years.

The minister said Pakistan's trade and tariff policy regimes had been simplified, streamlined and rationalized over the years. Mr Khan said that the WTO quota-free regime offered both opportunities and challenges. But, he stated that the domestic textile industry had been fully cognizant with the post-quota opportunities and challenges.

While briefing the delegation on regional trade cooperation, the commerce minister said that Safta had been signed by Saarc-member states which would be in place from January 2006 and would by fully operational by 2015.

"It is a good move towards improving regional trade. Trade with India is a part of composite dialogue which is currently under process between the two countries," he said.

The minister said Pakistan needed favourable market access terms with the EU and the US and the government was fully alive to the vitality of trade relations with them.

Mr Carstens appreciated the fact that Pakistan had achieved a very solid base in the macroeconomic field and now the challenge was to achieve a sustainable higher growth rate. He also showed his satisfaction over the liberalization of the trade regime in Pakistan.