ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approved targets to accelerate trade and cargo clearance, including achieving 30% pre-arrival clearance and raising the share of cargo processed through the green channel to 65% by the end of the current financial year.
Chairing the first meeting of the Trade Facilitation Board, Sharif directed authorities to eliminate unnecessary delays in trade processes, reduce business costs and take effective measures to promote exports. He said the government was committed to providing the business community with every possible facility and making trade and commercial activity easier.
The meeting was briefed on targets under the Time Release Automated System for all ports. The number of Authorised Economic Operators is to be increased to more than 50 by the end of the financial year.
Sharif directed authorities to conduct a comprehensive audit of all non-tariff measures and remove unnecessary barriers to trade. He approved a working group to review these measures and directed it to submit a roadmap within one month for eliminating unnecessary regulations and facilitating trade.
He also directed authorities to take effective measures to bring direct shipping lines to Pakistani ports, saying such facilities would make the movement of products from Pakistani factories to global buyers easier and faster.
The prime minister directed that all relevant agencies at high-volume ports provide services to the business community at a single location and called for promoting joint inspections and joint profiling by different government agencies.
Sharif directed the preparation of a National Trade Performance Index to measure cargo dwell time, customs clearance, logistics, ship clearance time, post-clearance audits and pre-clearance, among other key indicators.
Emphasizing the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises, he directed authorities to take special measures to increase their share in trade and called for mapping the various stages of SMEs' trading journeys to identify obstacles they face.
He also called for making the risk-management system in trade more effective, saying controls should extend from the pre-arrival stage to the post-release stage to speed up cargo clearance. Only high-risk cargo should be subjected to detailed inspection, he said.
Sharif directed officials to make greater use of artificial intelligence to improve risk management and speed up trade processes.
He said the primary objective of the Trade Facilitation Board was to remove obstacles in all trade-related procedures and stressed that trade facilitation was essential to making Pakistan an effective part of regional and global supply chains.
