HYDERABAD, Jun 14 (APP): The President Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry (HCSTSI) Muhammad Farooq Shaikhani, while congratulating the Federal Minister for Industry and Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar for initiating the policy of business to business border trade, termed it a positive step in improving the economy of Pakistan.
This trade will not only facilitate the traders to send Pakistani goods to the markets of Iran, Afghanistan and Russia, but all products which have been banned by the government due to the shortage of dollars can now be easily imported from these three countries, he observed in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
He said that the government had imposed ban on the import on bulk of goods from May 2022 under SROs as a result of which, the goods of the traders are not being released from the port following non-opening of LCs by the State Bank. As a result of which, he said that the traders were paying fines in terms of detention and demurrage on the departure basis. However, with the facility of business-to-business border trade, the business community can continue their business activities by trading goods for goods, he said.
For the first time in the history, he said that trade is being conducted between Pakistan and China through the Karakoram Highway, which has not only reduced the cost of movement but also reduced the transport time to eight days, which was one month earlier by sea.
The HCSTSI President said that the government’s opening of the border market on the Pakistan-Iran border was also a good initiative adding that it would bring prosperity to the area and more trade centers would be created in the future. The Iranian products are available at a lower price than the products of other countries, which is good news for Pakistani businessmen and people who are crushed by inflation, he said.
He said that Pakistan was committed to establish Single Window under Trade Facilitation Agreement in 2017. The first phase of implementation was launched in June 2022, with the aim of digitizing the cross-border trade process, he informed and added that PSW leverages the expertise of the private sector to implement this important reform initiative, he added.
Apart from customs, he informed that 76 other departments were involved in various aspects of cross-border trade. The PSW aims to automate all these departments under an electronic single window thereby reducing the time and cost of cross-border trade, he said and added that this plan stated that it had been implemented by the state of Pakistan and had not been affected by the change of governments. Similarly, a complete economic policy of the country also needs to be formulated and implemented at the state level, he said.