BENEFITTED IMMENSELY BY AN INCREASE OF $ 27 MILLION WHILE PAKISTAN INCREASED ONLY $ 3 MILLION BY FTA

By Walter Jayawardhana

Through the Free Trade Agreement signed between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Sri Lanka benefited immensely by increasing the island nation’s exports by US $ 27 million while Pakistan increased its exports by only US $ 3 million said the karachchi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Chamber President said the fault was by Pakistan since the prime reason for Pakistan not being able to increase its trade with Sri Lanka was the lack of knowledge about the Free Trade Agreement among the business community the country signed with the Indian Ocean island republic. The Chamber said by the cognizance of the agreement Sri Lanka increased its exports by US $ 27 million compared to Pakistan’s measly 3 million.

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce President Maiyd Aziz told the inaugural meeting of the Regional Economic Affairs Committee that now the chamber is organizing an intensive seminar in Karachi in April on understanding FTA in collaboration with the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo, the Sindh provincial government and the Trade Development Authority in Pakistan.

He said it is planned to highlight SAFTA, Pak-Sri Lanka FTA, Pak-China FTA, and the under negotiation FTAs with Malaysia and Bangladesh. He talked about the shipping protocol signed with India, and proposed to the Pakistan government that it should promote and create intra-regional investment along with trade.

The Special Committee Chairman on Regional Economic Affairs Danish Saeed said that India is taking the maximum advantage of the Free Trade Agreements signed and Pakistan should take an example from them. He said Pakistan should could galvanize its trade through profound understanding the trade agreements the country signed.

Further emphasizing India as an example to follow he said Indo-China bilateral trade has crossed the US $ 25 billion mark in one year both China and India have attained awareness of the competitive domestic markets in each others country. Saeed pointed out China and SAARC countries constitute 20 % of the global population and thus provide ample opportunities of trade for one another.