ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: Pakistan with strong belief in free-trade, wants to see an early removal of non-tariff barriers to take advantage of the full potential of intra-D8 trade, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Monday.
Inaugurating the D8 Trade Exhibition, the premier said: “We are convinced that implementation of tariff concessions under the preferential trade agreement would lead the D8 community towards greater economic integration.”
“Important framework agreements have been put in place such as Preferential Trade Agreement, Agreement on Visa Facilitation, and Cooperation on Customs matters. It is our collective responsibility to benefit from these arrangements for our common good,” he said.
“If we are consistent, there is no doubt that by 2018 we can achieve our intra-D-8 trade target of $500 billion, and even surpass it.”
Pakistan is keen to expand business and trade relations with the D-8 member countries, he added.
The prime minister said that free trade is the best guarantor of sustained economic growth, and the democratic government in Pakistan believes in the theme of “Trade, Not Aid”.
The prime minister said that the initiative to organise the first ever meeting of the heads of Trade Promotion Organisations (TPOs) was intended to institutionalise trade relations among the D-8 member countries.
“Trade promotion organisations can play a critical role in catalysing the private sector, and identifying avenues of cooperation in trade promotion,” he maintained by hoping that meeting of TPOs will come up with concrete and practical recommendations to expand trade relations.
The prime minister said that the government had taken concrete steps in its trade policy to enable the private sector to play a key role in developing export sector. “Promoting regional trade is an important objective of the trade policy. By engaging our regional partners, we aim to increase our exports in the region from 17 per cent to 25 per cent,” he added.About the scope of economic cooperation between D-8 countries, Raja Pervez Ashraf said “we have a huge market of close to a billion people.
Mutual benefits of trading with each other will be enormous, and the surest way to improve the economic indicators of our countries.”
He said it was matter of satisfaction that in its 15-year journey, the D-8 governments had taken many practical steps to facilitate and promote trade. “We believe that access to markets should be based on equitable principles, as we have always raised our voice for promoting unhindered market access,” he asserted.He hoped that the trade exhibition would result in forging long lasting trade and business linkages among D-8 countries. Pakistan will display its Halal food, engineering and textile industries.
Auto parts and other consumer goods in Pakistan are also areas that can be explored, he said.