FPCCI starts advocacy for removal of NTBs in Saarc region

KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has started the process of lobbying and advocacy for the removal of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) in South Asia to streamline and boost trade in the region.

In this regard, the FPCCI has set up an advisory council, which comprises businessmen from the private sector, officials of the government, and academia, etc. The council will suggest measures to protect the interest of trade within the Saarc region.

The advocacy process has been initiated following the completion of two phases of the Non-Tariff Measures (NTM) Desk project in South Asia.

“The NTM Desk in all the Saarc member counties has to form a Policy Advocacy Group to implement the strategy for removal of NTMs/NTBs,” according to the official note of the apex trade body.

The NTM Desks in all Saarc member countries were established in 2014 by the Regional Trade Facilitation Group of Saarc Trade Promotion Network with the financial support of the German International Cooperation (GIZ) with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Trade Promotion Network (Saarc-TPN) is a constellation of 28 key public and private-sector institutions responsible for trade-related issues from all the eight Saarc member countries.

The network aims to strengthen the content-specific structure of regional trade-related agreements, to promote their implementation at the member-state level, and to support the resulting private-sector potentials for intra-regional trade through five working groups in the areas included: Trade Information Portal; Business to Business (B2B) approaches; Quality Infrastructure; Trade promotion for Small and Medium Enterprises, and Regional Trade Facilitation.

Five independent working groups have been established to meet the objectives of these five distinct areas.

FPCCI-NTM Desk is working for and in collaboration with the Regional Trade Facilitation Group. The working group has developed a strategy as a part of their operational plan for the removal of NTMs/NTBs in South Asia through Policy Advocacy.

The FPCCI termed that NTMs/NTBs were major reasons for sluggish trade in South Asia.

In order to launch the policy advocacy group (Pakistan Chapter), FPCCI would hold a national level meeting next week (likely on July 12).

Two years back, the desk was established and the national chamber intended to identify NTMs, which were being used to reinforce the market restrictions.

“The use of NTMs is against the free trade and WTO accord.

NTMs include all measures, besides tariffs, which are used to protect a domestic economic activity; they may be imposed or sponsored by government,” said Dr Ayub Mehar, Director General Research at the FPCCI.

“The tools and types of NTMs cannot be identified unless these are observed; these are changed from time to time and vary from market to market. Though, WTO has a full-fledged dispute settlement body, majority of Pakistani exporters do not have sufficient resources to follow their cases in WTO,” he said.

Dr Mehar further elaborated that many NTMs failed to get notified in the formal review process because of inadequate representation of industry organisations in the process.

Consequently such losses are accumulated in the national economy. “A timely identification and action is required to avoid business losses,” he added.