WASHINGTON D.C: The Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar met the leadership of American Apparel & Footwear Association and representatives of Pakistani leading businesses at Embassy of Pakistan in Washington.
The delegation included Stephen Lamar, President & CEO American Apparel & Footwear Association, Nate Harmen, Senior Vice President (Policy), Beth Hughes, Vice President (Trade & Customs Policy), Ms. Hun Quach, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Levi Strauss & Co. and Greg Snipes, CFO & COO, Royce Too LLC.
Other participants included Shelley Rider (Interloop), Steve Pianowski (Nishat Chunian), Irfan Hassan (Al-Karam), Ahmed Fraz (Gul Ahmed), Mubasher Butt (Prgmea), Muneeb Tariq (PHMA) and Kamran Arshad (APTMA).
The Secretary Commerce Muhammad Sualeh Ahmed Faruqi briefed the participants about various steps being taken to facilitate business community and address their issues.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Masood Khan also joined the meeting.
The meeting discussed in detail matters relating to bilateral trade in cotton and textiles with a special focus on strengthening of Pak-US trade relations, institutionalization of mutual linkages, standardization, traceability and visibility of products and facilitation of the business community.
Addressing the participants, Commerce Minister said that Pakistan was keen to strengthen its economic ties with the United States. He said that the private sector and the business community had a key role in realizing the vision of enhanced trade ties between the two countries.
The Minister said that the government was committed not only to provide every possible facilitation to the business community but also to put in place policies that could fulfil the requirements of business community and the global market.
The Minister said that private sector should come up with innovative ideas and solutions to overcome existing challenges and secure greater market penetration. He said that diversification of the products while ensuring quality, affordability and competitiveness would help getting better market share to Pakistani products.
The meeting was informed that the Government is setting up National Compliance Centre to address issues of compliance of Pakistani products to the international standards.
The Centre would be operational by 30 June 2023.
The Minister also encouraged US entrepreneurs to actively participate in TEXPO exhibition to be held during end of May this year.
