“As Secretary (Hillary) Clinton has said, we share Pakistan’s desire to transition our relationship from aid to trade. We strongly believe that a relationship based on private sector investment and trade will be more stable and mutually beneficial in the long term,” Office of the State Department Spokesperson said in response to a question taken at the daily breifing following the Pakistani envoy’s call for expansion in trade cooperation.
Spokesperson Victoria Nuland was asked at a daily Press briefing if the U.S. Administration was currently advocating for Congress to extend Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) status to Pakistani textiles.
“Pakistan currently is already a beneficiary of the GSP program, which provides tariff relief, including for a limited number of textile products, for many countries. We continue to work with Congress to find ways of extending additional trade preferences to Pakistan,” the State Department response said.
In her remarks to a gathering of experts at the US Institute of Peace,Ambassador Rehman argued that Islamabad wants to move its economic relations with the United States to greater trade, away from dependence on assistance.
The European Union recently okayed a preferrentail trade program for Pakistani products and Ambassador Rehman that hoped Washington would also assist her South Asian country in economic revival with a trade initiative of its own in the face of $ 78 billion losses it has suffered due to issues related to lingering Afghan conflict and it’s own fight against militancy. (APP)
