WASHINGTON, Dec 11: Pakistan and the United States held the inaugural meeting of the joint working group on trade and investment at the White House conference centre on Tuesday.

Khalid Saeed, additional secretary Ministry of Commerce and Trade, represented Pakistan while William Lash, assistant secretary Department of Commerce and Jon Rosenbaum, assistant secretary Office of the US Trade Representative, represented the United States.

The Joint Working Group of Investment and Trade is an institutional arrangement aimed at strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade and investment. The United States is the largest export destination and largest trading partner of Pakistan. It is also the largest investor in Pakistan.

The talks held on Tuesday and those scheduled for the next two days focus on bilateral issues as well as how the two countries can cooperate in moving forward on issues of multilateral free trade.

The meeting covered a wide range of issues including market access, understanding of each other’s positions in the ongoing negotiations in the World Trade Organization, need for enhanced technical assistance to build capacity and facilitating exchange of visits between the private sector of the two countries. The meeting will continue till December 12, 2002.