ISLAMABAD: The local business community has lauded the MoU on five-year strategic trade cooperation plan signed between Pakistan and Iran and said the agreement would pave way for promoting bilateral trade.
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Atif Ikram Sheikh said that during the seventh Pakistan-Iran Joint Trade Committee meeting held in Tehran in April 2015, both countries had agreed to enhance bilateral trade to $5 billion.
In a statement, he hoped that five-year strategic trade cooperation plan would be instrumental in realizing this goal. He hailed the landmark agreement between Pakistan and Iran to open two new crossing points along their border as it would facilitate trade and people-to-people contacts between the two brotherly Islamic countries.
He said despite huge trade potential, Pak-Iran bilateral trade between the two countries has remained low. He identified non-tariff barriers of Iran, its high customs duty on products of Pakistan’s interest like textiles, its complicated import processes, lack of enabling infrastructure, poor rail, road and air links and less number of land routs as the key reasons of low trade volume between the two countries and stressed that both countries should focus on addressing these issues in order to improve two-way trade.
The ICCI president said trade between Pakistan and Iran was confined to limited items as Pakistan mostly imported oil and gas from Iran and exported rice and meat to Iran. He stressed that both countries should focus on diversification of trade to achieve better results. He said Pakistan could export many products to Iran including fruits, textiles, surgical items, sports goods, gems and jewellery etc.
