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Latin America keen to sign FTA with Pakistan

Cheetah786

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ISLAMABAD (March 08 2007): Mercosur, a regional group of four Latin American countries, has expressed its willingness to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Pakistan. Mercosur comprising Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil is an emerging trading bloc, which is also known as Southern Common market in Latin America.

Delivering a lecture here on Wednesday at the Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) on "Argentina and the Latin American region", Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Argentine Chamber of deputies Dr Jorge M Arguelio said South American countries saw Pakistan as a 'gateway to East Asia.'

Therefore, Argentina, the second largest Mercosur nation, along with its other member countries wanted to have free trade agreement with Pakistan, he added. He recalled the visit of President General Pervez Musharraf to Buenos Aires in December 2004 during which both countries had shown interest in improving relations in economic and trade sectors.

He noted that an agreement already in place between the two countries on enhancing trade and economic ties would bolster mutually beneficial cooperation for the well being of the people of two nations. Dr Arguelio, who is heading a parliamentary delegation, dwelt at length on the changes, which took place during last two decade in South America including in Argentina.

"Argentina has come a long way following the political and economic crises at the advent of new century," he told the audience, saying now his country's economy was stabilising with an average growth of 9 percent. Mercosur countries are looking to promote their regional grouping on the patron of European Union, he pointed out.

"The time has gone now when South American countries were backyard of United States." Talking about Pak-Argentina relations, Dr Arguelio maintained that both countries had enjoyed commonality of views on number of regional and international issues particularly on UN reforms.

"We both (Pakistan and Argentina) want UN reforms in a way that discourages creation of more centres of power," he added. In his welcome address, Chairman ISS and former foreign secretary Inamul Haq said Latin American region had long been ignored here in Pakistan.

"We neglected Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and other countries in the region at our own cost." However, Haq expressed his satisfaction that now Pakistan had realised the vitality of forging closer ties in economic and other fields with the Latin America.http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=536174&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

Finally some one is listening to the business community in Pakistan.About bloody time :flag: :bunny:
 
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KARACHI (March 08 2007): Cement export to India has been started with 1,500 tons cement exported by a leading cement manufacturer. According to the first capital research report, for the first time D G Khan Cement dispatched 1,500 tons cement to India, as a sample, by sea route, at C&F price of around $90 per ton.

The report said that this has also been proved by a bulk of inquiries from India to local cement manufacturers, received by Indian importers for the import of commodity. Head of first capital research, Muhammad Rehan Khan, said that huge capacity augmentations by the cement industry of Pakistan have 7 million tons excess capacity which is expected to reach at 14 million tons by the end of FY08.

"We believe India, beside Afghanistan and UAE, to be the most feasible country for exporting Pakistan's excess cement capacity," he said. He said that estimated demand/supply gap in India is to be around l0 million to 12 million tons per annum and the cement demand started to outpace supply.

Later, after significant price hike, thus invited the government's intervention to improve the situation in the form of banning export and encouraging imports by abolishing duty from 12.5 percent to Zero-rate.

In this scenario of India supply and demand, there are several factors that ranked Pakistan to be most feasible cement exporting country for India, he said, and added that the current demand-supply situation in Pakistan cement sector indicates excess cement production capacity of around 7-7.5 million tons, while there is no big gap in the cement prices of the two countries.

The quality of Pakistan's cement is far better than its biggest rival China and, most importantly, Pakistan is most competitive in the form of transportation charges as compared to other regional countries, which usually constitute of 15 percent of the imported price of cement, he added.

He said that there is huge demand from Indian buyers for cement and D.G Khan Cement has started export :tup: and it has become first exporter of cement to India. Other cement companies are also all set to meet India's cement demand, he added. He said that additional capacities of domestic cement manufacturers are almost completed, thus placing themselves to reap the possible benefits from the Indian cement demand.

"In this regard, we consider Lucky Cement to be the top beneficiary of the situation on the back of its presence in the region of the country as well as its timely and cost-effective completion of expansions," he said.
 
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pakistan should improve trade with this block as it is a great market for pakistani products
 
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