ISLAMABAD: Minister for Commerce and Textile Muhammad Pervaiz Malik Tuesday said it was the top priority of the government to enhance the country’s exports and achieve its trade targets.Talking to APP, he said he would evolve a short, medium and long term strategy for enhancing the multilateral trade with different potential markets of the world.
He said in European Union (EU)’s markets, Pakistan had a huge opportunity for exporting different goods and after signing the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP-PLUS), Pakistan had increased its exports in EU in different sectors. Replying to a question, he said, “According to the vision of PML-N leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, we are committed to enhance the trade volume with EU and other regions of the world.”
The minister said exports of home textile products to EU from Pakistan had increased by 60% in 2016 as compared to 2013. Pakistan’s exports of carpets and rugs in the EU had increased from 30.30 million Euros in 2013 to 37.92 million Euros in 2016, he added. He said Pakistan’s exports of cotton and other raw materials for value added textiles had grown rather modestly in the EU about 9% in 2016 as compared to 2013.
The minister said this indicated a healthy trend of increased consumption of raw materials by the downstream industry. “We are committed to finalize the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey and Thailand for promoting trade ties with these countries,” he said. He said commerce ministry would search the new potential markets in different regions of the world for increasing the country’s exports.
