|
Pakistan
to Push For Free Trade Pact with U.S.
 |
Pakistan is pushing for a free trade agreement with the U.S. to help bolster economy
|
WASHINGTON
D.C., September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As a closer
step in its relations with the United states, Pakistan is this week to
intensify its push for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United
States, as its economic recovery seeks to gather pace and offset the
cost of the September 11 attacks and the simmering crisis with India.
Pakistani
Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an
interview that he was "cautiously optimistic" that a
long-term goal of sealing a trade pact was attainable.
Aziz,
in town for International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual
meetings, will also urge U.S. officials he meets this week, including
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, to grant wider access to U.S. markets
for textiles, a key Pakistani export.
And
he promised no let-up in a reform drive designed to inject the
macroeconomic stability so prized by foreign investors into a
previously chaotic economy.
Aziz's
sights are set firmly on a free trade pact with Washington, which
would further pry open markets in the United States, Pakistan's
largest trading partner.
"Clearly
the FTA [Federal Trade Agreements] is a long, drawn-out process, there
are issues like environmental issues, labor issues, it's not just
opening trade to both countries."
"I
am cautiously optimistic," he said, though he declined to put a
time-frame on when talks might begin, or how long a deal would take to
conclude.
Knitting
trade pacts is notoriously time consuming, and Aziz added that
Islamabad would watch closely as the United States strives to finally
conclude FTA's with Singapore - the first such pact with an Asian
state - and Chile.
Aziz
also hoped for concessions on textile markets, but recognized tricky
political questions, raised by requests for better U.S. market access
for foreign products.
There
have been whispers in the Pakistani community here that Washington
should be doing more to help its ally, after expecting huge
concessions from Islamabad in its campaign against terrorism.
But
Aziz, a former Citibank executive smoothly fluent in diplo-speak, said
he was not seeking a "quid pro quo," stressing, however,
that a profitable, stable and moderate Pakistan was vital for the
world.
Pakistan's
recent economic performance has won kudos from the IMF, which
predicted GDP growth of 4.6 percent next year and 5.0 percent the year
after.
Last
year, total foreign investment in Pakistan was about half a billion
dollars, up 30 percent from the previous 12 months, and foreigners are
eyeing government privatization programs in the energy and financial
sectors.
Aziz
proudly touted the Karachi Stock Exchange as the world's best
performing bourse this calendar year, and says portfolio managers have
taken note. He did acknowledge, though, that a low initial market cap
set the stage for fast gains.
Pakistan
has also profited from the lifting of U.S. investment restrictions
under sanctions imposed after its nuclear weapons tests in 1998, and a
12.5 billion-dollar write-off by Paris club creditor nations of its
external debt last year.
"Our
challenge now is to transfer this macroeconomic growth to the benefit
of the common man, but we have to stay the course of reform, because
if we do not stay the course things can derail very quickly," he
said.
The
picture may have been rosier had it not been for the economic
earthquake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. campaign in
Afghanistan, and attacks on Americans in Pakistan which may have
scared off some investors.
"Clearly
if September 11 had not occurred, we would have done even
better," said Aziz, considered a key player in the military-led
government of President Pervez Musharraf.
Pakistan
must also pay to keep tens of thousands of troops mobilized on the
border with India, due to a crisis with its nuclear rival which keeps
threatening to boil over.
Before
the latest tension, Aziz said, "we were on a path of
‘reducing’ [ed. sic] our defense expenditure, and we were well on
our way."
"It
has cost us 250 million dollars a year, it's something we can handle
but had it not taken place that money would have gone on spending on
health, education and poverty reduction.".
|
