The shutting of doors to Indian exports is seen as a retaliatory measure, or as to garner more items on the negotiating table while both sides meet again in the ongoing bilateral talks. The case in point for the payback is that India does not allow transit facilities to Pakistan’s exports to Nepal and Bhutan.

At a glance, the accord hugely favours Pakistan as its goods gain access through Afghanistan to Central Asian countries including lucrative markets of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The amended trade deal was signed by Pakistan Commerce Minister Amin Fahim and his Afghan counterpart Anwarul Haq in the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Islamabad has for long resisted pressure from Kabul to allow the export of Indian goods by land through Pakistani territory. However, this long-standing demand by both Afghanistan and India seemed to impact more the poor of the region than the governments of the nations involved.

The failures of protracted farcical talks between India and Pakistan continue to push every possible event to be used as a tool to blatantly demonstrate displeasure with one another’s actions. Lately, while Islamabad refuses to give India the Most Favoured Nation status, Delhi has raised both tariff and non-tariff barriers to restrict Pakistan’s exports.

It is yet to be seen whether Clinton would be able to play a meaningful role in the region to re-weld the two nuclear states for ushering in peace and prosperity to the region. But given the frequent border tensions and unrest in Kashmir after a respite indicate that any time in near future it is unlikely the two governments giving in to allow each other land transit rights.

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Many players have likened the Jabulani to a ‘supermarket ball’, saying it is too unpredictable and flies through the air too easily. Goalkeepers have often expressed dissatisfaction about footballs at most mega events of late, but this is the first time even field players and coaches joining the chorus.

Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon went on to say “I don’t see why we can’t just go back to the old black-and-white checkered version we all played with as kids.” Statistics show scoring was down by 16 goals in the first round as compared to last World Cup’s 117-101, and scoring from set pieces has also witnessed significant dip.

According to an APP report, Pakistan has exported around 3.5mn footballs worth $5.2mn for the ongoing FIFA World Cup grabbing only 30 percent of the total orders floated globally. The penetration of machine-made footballs in the international market has caused a serious dent to Pakistan’s hand-stitched soccer ball industry.

Footballs and other sports goods are manufactured in Sialkot, a Pakistani province which boasts of building an international airport with exporters’ fortune. Though Sialkot was producing footballs since a century ago, it gained international celebrity status when it produced the “Tango” ball for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, kicking off a lucrative industry.

The footballs from Sialkot are subjected to daily tests of quality in laboratories to supervise pressure, bounce, impermeability and shape. The making of footballs include professional automatons cutting sheets of synthetic leather in hexagons or pentagons, marking, drying the paint, dividing the pieces and sewing with needles, thread and thimbles.

Only a few years ago around 70 percent of world soccer balls were prepared in Sialkot and the country on average was exporting 40mn balls worth $210mn produced annually by some 60,000 highly skilled labourers. Pakistan’s soccer ball industry is awaiting a huge favourable decision from the FIFA for them to regain its coveted football exports share in the global market.

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The Engineering Development Board (EDB) which organized the workshop was attended by various industry heads and government officials. Zaheeruddin Dar, Chairman of DART, a consulting firm which is associated with the formation of NEEDS presented 29 point proposal draft at the workshop including the establishment of EXIM bank, trade promotions and industry specific training institutions.

While addressing the workshop, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Owais Ahmed Ghani said that despite insurgency, great opportunities in the engineering and technological industrial sectors awaited Pakistan. It should be noted, the recently concluded Pak-US Trade and Investment Council had remarked that due to efforts of Pakistan to combat terrorism, it has suffered huge losses and its export competitiveness declined considerably.

Razzaq Dawood, one of the business leaders told that if Pakistan desired to achieve the $70bn export target it had to integrate engineering, chemical and information technology (IT) development at par with textiles. In response, Minister for Industries and Production, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani assured that his government would bring about necessary changes to facilitate the engineering industry to play its due role. Furthermore, engineering sector’s significant growth last year when exports of Pakistan decreased by 11 percent also compels the Gilani administration to give equal priority for other key sectors apart from textiles.

The NEEDS has chalked out plans to energize the industry from its $800mn exports to $10bn in next 15yrs through the implementation of the proposal draft. It has identified Central Africa and Latin America as potential markets and Pakistan has the ability to tap more than $165bn market through right approach. It has also observed the country’s engineering products had good demand in international markets owing to their price competitiveness, and all they needed was extra support from the government to exploit the export opportunities overseas.

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In 2007, Bush administration began negotiations on ACTA particularly to contain several developing countries engaged in piracy acts, and to protect the interests of leading US firms which lost their price competitiveness on account of counterfeiting. Incidentally, the ACTA effect will not be restricted to internet activities alone but extends to counterfeit pharmaceuticals, designer merchandise, music, movies, etc.

Surprisingly, the final draft will not have the endorsement of China, one of the largest counterfeit producers. Hence, looking back to past events on taking action against China in regards to infringements, the trade pact is expected to encounter similar stalemate while implementing a likely ratified deal. Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the European Union Presidency (Spain) and EU Member States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the US.

Many ACTA dissidents blame the secretive or undemocratic nature of reaching the agreement by not revealing the details for public discussion. On the other hand, WIPO provides scope for public scrutiny with an added advantage of the inclusion of major counterfeiting countries in negotiations.

Meanwhile, the tech firms are understood to be apprehensive about ACTA’s secondary liability clause, which recommends the responsibility of copyright infringement behaviour of the user on the online service provider. The clause will possibly affect social networking sites, video-sharing sites and several other user-generated content sites including the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia.

Last month, a statement signed by senior trade-union officials from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the US raised the question of intellectual property rights becoming an element in the free-trade negotiations. However that fear is put to rest by officials at the eighth round of ACTA negotiations calling the deal as a ‘standalone’ one, and would not tinker with FTAs.

According to sources, the draft will leave out three-strikes provision that would require border agents to search the contents of electronic devices. Experts term three-strikes a preposterous idea as it would virtually bring every transit cell to a standstill.

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The food imports have considerably risen in the last few years in view of the increase in population as well as water scarcity and hostile land conditions. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are already developing arable lands and food processing units in several Asian and African countries in a bid to overcome the snowballing global food shortages.

Harish Rupani, managing director of Equinox Trading, a food products trading company, told the Gulf News that growing food locally was not a viable option for the UAE as it costed three or four times more to grow local crops than it did to import. Dubai, the UAE’s commercial hub is one of the largest re-exporting centres in the world, and it traded in 2008 about $1.2bn worth of food-related items.

In the recent estimates by the Business Monitor International (BMI) indicate that food expenditure in the UAE reached $6.7bn in 2009. And it has been forecasted that it would grow by close to 3 percent in the current year.

The heavy dependence by the GCC on food imports also makes it the most vulnerable to not only price variations but also to increasingly changing food policies of the exporting countries such as blanket ban on exports of certain food commodities which are scarce in those markets.

The Standard Chartered’s most recent food report claims food prices are at a historic high and rising, around 80 percent higher than the low mid-2002 levels. Rupani said that prices of sugar and rice had tripled over the past five years.

The BMI is understood to have learned that the UAE government is making numerous efforts to increase the number of food processing plants in the country. The government has invested about $1.4bn into the food sector since 1994, and there are 150 food processing plants operational in the UAE today.

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The president of Malaysian Indian Business Association (MIBA) P Sivakumar told that it was imperative to relax visa regulations to tide over the growing demand for tailors as many shops were at the verge of shutting down. The inadequacy of sustainable skilled human resources in this field within the country was pointed out to be one of the major reasons for the shortage.

Sivakumar said currently most of the workers with traditional sewing skills were hired from India and Pakistan. He further added although most of these businesses preferred to hire Malaysians, there was a lack of local workers with the necessary skills.

Many representatives from the industry is understood to have approached the MIBA president on this issue as they feared any delay from the government in granting permission to hire foreigners would force them to close shop sooner or later. Sivakumar said “We want the government to consider their plight as it is a unique problem”.

The Malaysian government’s efforts to train locals to avoid jobs being lost to foreigners were futile following many prospects who were homemakers opted to work from home. Sivakumar said the government should consider long-term training programs to generate skilled workers within the country.

According to sources, the MIBA is preparing to present a memorandum to the Human Resources Ministry to resolve this issue, and there are also plans afoot to set up an Indian tailors’ association. The MIBA is a non-profit and non-governmental organization which facilitates entrepreneurial integration of the Malaysian Indians to the region.

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When the democratic government assumed office after a long gap of military rule last year, the Pakistani government under the leadership of Asif Ali Zardari had to swallow straight the fact that there was no money in the treasury to run the government machinery. Soon after becoming the president of Pakistan, Zardari made a whirlwind trip around the world seeking aid, but along with some aid from well wishing countries, his trip brought back home the bad name of indulging in a begging spree.

Lately, Pakistan is forced to depart from the old mantra of seeking aid, every now and then, as international monetary help is becoming difficult to come by particularly due to deteriorating brand name of the country. In such a scenario, the new administration has eventually realized economic growth is the only contraceptive to terrorism, militancy and quasi-military rule the country is facing today.

In a recent meeting between Federal Minister for Commerce of Pakistan, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and the Cuban Ambassador, Gustavo Machin Gomez has agreed to remove bottlenecks in relations to promote trade between both countries. In addition, the Pakistani minister received an invitation from the Cuban Ambassador to participate in the forthcoming International Trade Fair to be held in Cuba, a platform that would help Pakistan to engage with other Latin American countries.

Likewise, the Chairman, Board of Investment (BoI) of Pakistan Saleem H Mandviwalla informed that the country had received a nod from the Italian government in providing a credit line equivalent to $10bn for Italian investors willing to invest in Pakistan. Mandviwalla said that this credit line had been promised by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in response to a request by the President Zardari during a bilateral meeting in Rome.

Besides, the chairman said his talks with the leading South Korean firms including Daewoo, Hyundai, LOTTE and K Water were fruitful, and they were keen to invest in Pakistan. The LOTTE has shown interest in investing about $10bn in Pakistan by way of acquisitions in next five years while K Water will construct dams and Korean Electric Power Company (KEPCO) will be generating and distributing power.

Pakistan after distancing a prospective huge trade partner, India by not taking appropriate action against the perpetrators of last year’s Mumbai attack and alleged abetting of non-state actors, who engage in terrorist activities in India, is in a haste to find new trade partners to keep its economy ticking over. Pakistan’s upcoming FTA talks with the EU which will take place after repeated requests from the former, is a strong indication that Pakistan is serious about prioritizing trade over aid especially after losing its neighbouring trade potential.

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The finance bill of 2009 tabled a proposal to amend sub-section (4) of Section 134 by substituting the tax deducted as a “minimum tax” which was hitherto deemed as a “final tax”. In short, if the bill is passed, the exporter will have to carry the burden of a new tax regime which would be based on commodity and its volume.

Apart from the amendment, in regards with exports to Afghanistan which is normally against cash, the proposed Bill has also introduced a new sub-section (3c) authorizes customs to collect tax at the time of clearance of goods exported at one percent of the gross amount of such goods.

The bill aims at streamlining the tax system especially by legislation that could bring all transactions under the tax net, and thereby to increase export tax revenue of the country. Hereafter, the exports without a letter of credit against a contract for which payment may be tendered through non-banking channels needed to be brought within the tax net.

Though there is no evaluation conducted on the pros and cons of the provision of “final tax” that has been in effect since 1992, exporters fear that in the present circumstances it would be hard to sustain in the market with any extra liabilities. Industry experts averred that taking into account the falling global demand for most goods any such move would only serve as a roadblock to export earnings of the country.

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According to Pakistan’s food and agriculture ministry, bringing higher acreage of land under cultivation and perfect climatic conditions have helped the country to hope for a higher yield this year around. Pakistan consumes about 22mn tons of wheat per annum, farmers are expecting a bumper crop this year at about 24mn tons.

On the other hand, bumper harvests consecutively for the second year have assisted India to augment its stockpiles for about 30mn tons until early this month, increasing by two-thirds from a year ago. India procures its wheat from farmers for a minimum floor price of $225 per ton. The floor price is fixed for wheat and several other crops to the farmers to avoid incurring losses in case of lower yields or crop failures.

While India offloads 2mn ton surplus wheat, about half a million ton of Pakistani wheat would be heading to the Gulf region and Afghanistan. Pakistan is allowing wheat exports after the procurement of the same reached 8mn tons this year, the highest in seven years.

Indian traders are expecting a subsidy from the government to sell wheat and wheat products for a competitive price as international wheat prices is lower or about equal including cost and freight to the Southeast Asian region. Nevertheless, the wheat traders will export to their neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Nepal since they are closer to the wheat procurement sites of the bordering Indian state, Bihar. Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai said exports would be allowed through select ports to keep a check on how much wheat was being exported.

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