NTC plans to introduce protection policy to safeguard industries

KARACHI: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) has for the very first time planned to introduce a protection policy in which relevant laws and regulations will be defined to safeguard the interest of local industries.
Chairman NTC M Abbas Raza, speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said the protection policy would have a pre-defined timeline, starting from the concerned industry’s internship to maturity period.
Terming the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China as a ‘very serious’ issue, he said 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 any 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 proper criteria, which should be removed from the FTA.
Abbas Raza said four trade laws pertaining to NTC were formulated and would be implemented any moment after the signing by president of Pakistan. Under the new changes in law, raw materials solely used for export purposes which are included in DTRE will not be subjected to anti-dumping duty, he added.
Chairman Businessmen Group and Former President KCCI, Siraj Kassam Teli, in his remarks, advised the NTC Chairman to devise a system or create liaison between NTC and KCCI so that decisions affecting the businesses, industry, export and imports could be thoroughly discussed prior to implementation.
President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, while welcoming Chairman NTC, pointed out that irrational tariff structures of products being imported to and exported from Pakistan are terribly affecting trade and industry all over the country.