The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called upon the government to formulate a new Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STFP) in consultation with private sector as the existing trade policy has failed to promote exports up to the desired level. 
 

Khalid Iqbal Malik, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the STPF 2015-18 has not delivered as per expectations due to which the exports of the country have dwindled. He said it was encouraging that government has decided to revise it to arrest the trend of falling exports. 
 

He said the existing trade policy had aimed to expand exports to $35 billion by 2018, improve export competitiveness, shift the economy from factor-driven to innovation-driven and increase the share in the regional trade. However, the policy has not helped in achieving all these good objectives as the exports of the country have continued to fall and were expected to reach $ 20 billion this fiscal year compared to around $ 25 billion in 2013. He said the unsatisfactory performance of exports necessitated the formulation of a new trade policy that should be developed in thorough consultation with private sector to make it inclusive and export-oriented. 
 

Highlighting the reasons of lacklustre performance of the existing STPF, Khalid Iqbal Malik said that the improper structure of policy framework, late issuance of notifications of export promotion schemes announced in the policy and cumbersome procedures for availing the schemes were the major reasons of trade policy failure. He stressed that government should review previous export promotion scheme and remove their bottlenecks in the new trade policy to make it meaningful and result-oriented. 
 

He said that due to the difficult procedures of existing STPF, claims of only Rs.3.3 million were received in two years from exporters while a bulk amount of Rs.4 billion had lapsed that was subsequently surrendered to the Ministry of Finance. He emphasized that the new trade policy should address such issues so that it could help in promoting exports to the real potential of the country.