ISLAMABAD - Benjamin Embury, second secretary for Trade and Investment, Embassy of the United States of America, has called upon the Pakistani business community to take full benefit of US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme for promoting exports.

The GSP programme provided low tariff or duty free access to many categories of Pakistani products into US market. He said the US GSP programme was available to Pakistani private sector till 2017 and there was a need to create more awareness about it so that Pakistani business community could fully exploit it.

He stated this while exchanging views with Atif Ikram Sheikh, president Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, during his visit to Chamber House. He said that Pakistan has great potential for business and investment in various sectors of its economy and James Golsen, executive director for Asia, US Department of Commerce will visit Pakistan from Oct 2-8, 2016 to meet with public and private businesses in Pakistan in order to discuss the business environment and explore opportunities for new US companies aiming to enter Pakistani market. He said US was ready to cooperate with Pakistan in agriculture sector so that Pakistan could take benefit of its advanced technology to improve its productivity. He said a delegation of Pakistani agriculture sector businessmen led by US Ambassador will visit USA to enhance B2B ties in agriculture field.

He said US was committed to improve trade and economic relations with Pakistan as both countries have good potential to establish business partnerships. He said over 100 US companies were already present in Pakistani market and assured that US Embassy would provide assistance in promoting B2B relations between the private sectors of both countries.

In his welcome address, Atif Ikram Sheikh, president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that bilateral trade of around $6 billion between Pakistan and USA was far less than real potential of both countries. He said both countries should focus on frequent exchange of trade delegations to improve two-way trade. He said instead of providing aid, US should promote trade with Pakistan which was the best way to strengthen Pakistan's economy.

He said Pakistan has rendered great sacrifices due to fighting war against terrorism and the best way to compensate Pakistan for economic recovery was to provide enhanced duty free access to its products in US market. He said Pakistan's economic outlook offered promising future and urged that more US investors should explore Pakistan for joint ventures and investment in energy, infrastructure development and other sectors.