Amraiz Khan
Lahore
The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has underlined the need for new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with rest of the world besides making existing ones efficient and result oriented through negotiations with the countries concerned.
LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that nothing else can be better than FTA to reach out the mark of $ 50 billions exports.
They said that bilateral or multilateral FTAs with new countries would reduce or eliminate trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas and Pakistani products would have easy access to those countries whom with Pakistan has no FTA.
They said that Pakistan needs exports-led growth to bring in much needed foreign exchange, for industrial expansion and more revenue to the national exchequer but exports are well below the required level.
The LCCI office-bearers said that analysis of exports statistics is not showing a major breakthrough or an encouraging scenario.
According to available statistics, exports of Pakistan during July – March 2018-19 totaled $ 17,083 million with a minor increase of just 0.11% against exports of $ 17,064 million during the corresponding period of the last year.
They said that country would be experiencing a quantum jump to the exports after new developments on Free Trade Agreements as Pakistani products would have favorable incentives to trade in new markets while efficiency of the existing FTAs would add to the economic benefits.
