Bilateral Trade Topic Revisited Again By President Trump, Imran Khan: US Envoy

Commercial Chief at United States' Consulate here, Nathan Seifert, referring to the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan, said the bilateral trade was discussed and reviewed during third visit of Pakistan's Prime Minister to US which is very important for both the leaders

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2020 ) :Commercial Chief at United States' Consulate here, Nathan Seifert, referring to the recent meeting between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan, said the bilateral trade was discussed and reviewed during third visit of Pakistan's Prime Minister to US which is very important for both the leaders.

"It's so nice to see Heads of the two states sitting down, having nice conversation and talking about what can be done together which is actually very important for the business people of both countries," he said in a meeting with office-bearers of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), said a KCCI statement on Wednesday.

He said, hence, US business people saw there were going to be opportunities here in Pakistan. The United States was trying to normalize trade relationship and there was good progress to increase trade.

General Secretary BM Group in KCCI, A.Q. Khalil, Acting President KCCI Arshad islam, Vice President KCCI Shahid Ismail, Chairman Diplomatic Missions and Embassies Liaison Subcommittee Shamoon Zaki, former president KCCI Haroon Agar, Senior Commercial Assistant at US Consulate in Karachi Tashfeen Mehdi and Managing Committee Members were also present.

US Commercial Chief highlighting the purpose of his visit to KCCI said the main idea is to increase trade between US and Pakistan.

"We are very pleased to see Pakistan's improvement in ease of doing business and the good environment here that would certainly encourage people from US to come here and at times, investigate business opportunities in Pakistan," he remarked.

He said that Pakistan had been exporting good quality products to US and the trade between the two countries continues was growing year-by-year.

US missions in Pakistan were also facilitate Pakistani products being exported to US but our main focus of these offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad was to bring US companies here and help them find the right partners that could be distribution partners or joint venture partners, said Nathan Seifert.

"We also take delegations from Pakistan to participate in US trade shows and to some regional trade shows as well which is really important for us.

About 10 times each year, we take delegations from here to numerous trade shows in the United States, he said.

In this regard, a delegation from Pakistan will be participating in International Poultry and Processing Exposition in Atlanta by the end of this month. While applications were currently being reviewed for another Pakistani delegation's participation in the World of Concrete-2020 event which would start at the beginning of February 2020 in Las Vegas.

Pakistani delegates attending these events would be introduced by the representatives from Department of Commerce and we will also be providing space for B2B meetings, he said.

US Diplomat said that moreover a large Pakistani companies interested in expanding their businesses would also be taken to US for participation in Select-USA to be held in June 2020 so that they could have some sort of footprint in the US by investing in an office or a facility or may be a factory, US Commercial Chief said. This particular delegation would be led by himself for participation in SelectUSA in Washington D.C.

Earlier, Acting President KCCI Arshad Islam, said USA was the largest export partner of Pakistan and imports from the US had also been on the rise. Pakistan's exports to USA were recorded at $3.89 billion in 2018 as against exports of $3.76 billion in 2017, showing a growth of 3.5 percent. And, imports from USA stood at $2.85 billion during 2018 as against imports of $ 2.81 billion in 2017; reflecting increase of 1.43 percent.

He mentioned that KCCI had remained vibrant in promoting bilateral trade ties and exploring new trade prospects with USA. In this regard, KCCI has taken trade various delegations to USA.

He said KCCI had stressed on concluding a Pak-USA trade agreement whileshifting focus from aid to trade development, technology transfers and increase in investments. KCCI believes that only by increasing trade and economic activities can both USA and Pakistan enjoy mutually beneficial relations on a sustained basis.