UAE to back Pakistan bid for Free Trade Agreement with GCC

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI (March 29 2009): UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Bin Khalid Al Qasmi has said that the Emirates will support Pakistans quest for seeking free trade agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). In an exclusive interview with APP during the recent visit of the delegation of Pak-UAE Business Council of FPCCI at her office in Abu Dhabi.

She said that the next round of the meeting between Pakistan and GCC countries for FTA would be held in Islamabad in the next two months. "This will be a comprehensive agreement, covering three major areas--goods, services and investment," she said. UAE and Pakistan enjoy historical cordial ties, and UAE would support Pakistan for free trade access to the Gulf market, she added.

She said that the second round of these talks was held in January this year, and the third round would be held in Islamabad to further progress on this issue. Regarding the significant bilateral trade imbalance against Pakistan, Lubna suggested that Pakistan should focus on export of services and technology to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for improving balance of trade between the two countries.

She said that Pakistan has a lot of expertise in the services sector, which includes IT, medical services and other technologies that can be exported to UAE, besides exporting the merchandise. "There is a great opportunity for Pakistan to export its doctors, and IT experts. There is still high demand for knowledge workers from Pakistan, whether in technology, medical field, research and development, or renewable energy.

An engineering graduate, Lubna said that Pakistan has an excellent rice quality, but it needs to improve its storage and logistics to preserve the quality of exported rice. Pakistani businessmen, she said, should invest in storage, and improve logistics to maintain the quality of its exports of food items to UAE and other countries. She pointed out that UAE was also facing similar problems with its dates production and exports, but it handled this problems by developing storage and logistic facilities.

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