KARACHI: Chairman National Tariff Commission (NTC), M. Abbas Raza, while reacting to KCCI’s concerns expressed over extended ‘Protective Regime’ to few sectors only, informed that the National Tariff Commission, for the very first time, plans to introduce a ‘Protection Policy’ in which relevant laws and regulations will be defined to safeguard the interest of local industries.
Speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Chairman NTC added that this Protection Policy will have a pre-defined timeline, starting from the concerned industry’s internship to maturity period.
Chairman Businessmen Group and Former President KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli, President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Senior Vice President KCCI Muhammad Ibrahim Kasumbi, Vice President KCCI Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Former President KCCI AQ Khalil and KCCI Managing Committee members were present at the meeting.
Terming the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China as a ‘very serious’ issue, he opined that FTA with any country should be based on reciprocal business conditions and should be mutually advantageous for both the countries while the individual needs of the industry should also be kept in mind prior to finalizing an FTA. He advised the business and industrial community to be more aggressive and proactive in sharing their opinion over signing of FTAs otherwise the forthcoming FTAs with Turkey, Thailand and Korea may also create similar issues as being faced by the business community because of the FTA with China.
Referring to next round of negotiations on Pak-China FTA, NTC Chairman informed that the Ministry of Commerce has asked NTC to provide a list of those items which should be excluded from Pak-China FTA. Therefore, around 800 items have been identified after thorough review under a proper criteria which, NTC believes, should be removed from the FTA.
