Key points
- Pakistan wants to make sure to have a win-win situation for both countries: Minister
- We are looking at as both a challenge and an opportunity: Aurangzeb
- Two committees have been constituted to transform challenges into opportunities: Minister
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, while responding to the changing US trade policy and tariffs under Trump’s administration, said that Islamabad intends to send a high-level delegation to Washington to convey its commitment to a long-term strategic partnership.
“In the next couple of days, we are going to finalise our recommendations to the prime minister and ….. with approval of PM, we intend to send a high level delegation to Washington to get our views across and to ensure that we want to be a partner, which is a long term strategic partner,” the minister said while addressing a press conference.
He said that two committees were constituted, including a steering group, led by the Finance Minister, and a working group, headed by the Secretary of Commerce, adding there were meetings over the last couple of days and will continue with a view to transform challenges into opportunities.
“You should never let a good crisis go to waste. We are looking at it both challenge as well as opportunity,” he said, saying the government was constructively engaged and was working on a package and when finalised, it can go forward for discussion with US administration.
Largest trading partner
He said that Pakistan wanted to make sure to have win-win situation in the medium to long term for both countries. He said that the US was very important strategic partner and was also the largest trading partner in terms of exports, which go to the US.
He said Pakistan on the external front has seen stability as it has witnessed rising foreign exchange reserves on the back of very strong remittances, citing 32 per cent increase during first two months on year on year basis.
The Minister also discussed the government’s efforts to promote structural reforms, including taxation, energy, and privatization.
Talking about Staff Level Agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said, it successfully concluded six-monthly review, adding it happened because all our quantitative benchmarks were in a good place. The structural benchmarks also witnessed historic development, he said, adding the agriculture income tax through the provincial assemblies was historic.
So as the board approves it, we will get an additional $1 billion in terms of the next tranche, which is there under the current EFF program. He said negotiations on Resilience and Sustainability Fund also continued.
