Pakistan will seek waivers from Canada during minister’s visit

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will formally ask Canada to remove slapped provisional duty and dumping penalty of 47.9 percent on PET Resin import, resolving lingering controversy over fumigation of lentils, doing away with negative travel advisory against Pakistan and granting visa to businessmen during the upcoming visit of Minister of Commerce Pervez Malik from today (Sunday).

Pakistan’s Minister of Commerce and Textile Pervez Malik is scheduled to visit Canada from February 11 to 17, 2018 in which he is scheduled to meet Francois Philippe Champagne, Minister for International Trade and Ahmed D. Hussen, Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada. Official sources confirmed to The News on Saturday that Pakistan was the second largest exporter of PET Resin to Canada with the export of $21.9 million in 2016. Its exports increased by 8.6% in first l0 months of year 2017.

Canada initiated formal investigation against Novatex Pakistan on August 18, 2017 on allegations of dumping and subsidy of PET Resin (HS:390769) after receipt of complaint from M/S Selenis Canada. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) later levied provisional duty of 47.9 percent (Subsidy: 2.3 percent + Dumping: 45.6%) on Pakistan on November 16, 2017. Now the public hearing of the case is scheduled to be held by CITT at Ottawa on February 12, 2018 (Monday).

Fumigation of Lentils: The Department of Plant Protection (DPP) Pakistan and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are consulting on fumigation of Canadian seeds, lentils as the Canadian export certificates do not mention fumigation. A delegation of Pakistan's Ministry of National Food, Security & Research (MNFSR) and the DPP visited Saskatchewan in October 2017 for inspection of integrated measures.

Some sources said that DPP has extended interim waiver for three months but formal announcement from the Ministry and DPP is still awaited.

Business Visa: Pakistan's traders are faced with cumbersome visa formalities for Canada. The TDAP had selected 41 companies to participate in SIAL Food Exhibition held at Montreal in April 2016. However, only 8 were granted visa. M/S Pegasus Consultancy Canada Inc. had arranged a Pakistan-Canada ICT Forum in Toronto in May 2017, however only one out of 29 applicants got visa.

Negative Travel Advisory: Canada's Negative Travel Advisory for Pakistan discourages Canadian businessmen to travel to Pakistan. The High Commission is pursuing with the concerned Canadian authorities to revisit the travel advisory and the business visa regime. Pakistan-Canada relations are based on strong foundation of friendship and cooperation. Canada contributed to the economic development of Pakistan as a number of important projects like Warsak Dam, Tarbela Dam, KANPP Pakistan's first nuclear power plant at Karachi, and the first cement plant-Maple Leaf were completed with Canadian cooperation. There are no major irritants in bilateral relations between the two countries. The last high level visits include former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's visit to Halifax in 2006; Canada’s then Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s stop-over in Islamabad on 12 March 2006; and Canadian Foreign Minister MacKay's visit to Islamabad in January 2007.