Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Acting President Shaikh Khalid Tawab has expressed his serious concern over the untapped market of South America, which is a market of more than 400 million people with average per capita income of $12,000.

The Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and other countries of region don’t need any introduction in Pakistan if we discussed these under sports, geography, culture and ethnicity but in economic scenario these are untapped market for trade and investment relations, he said. Lack of information, mutual understandings, business interactions and people-to-people contact between Pakistan and South American countries were the ground of the low economic relations, he added.

Pakistan signed an agreement with a common market of South America (MERCOSUR; a biggest trade bloc of South America) on Trade in July this year, which initiated the process of negotiation of Preferential Trade Agreement, but there is no information regarding the implementation of this agreement, the FCCI president said.

On the other hand, Pakistan is co-member with South American countries in one trade agreement other than WTO; that is Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP), which came into being in 1989 but functionality is not up to the mark, he said.

He highlighted that there is a huge demand of Halal products in South American region. As per the available statistics, Central and South America is a market of $820 million of halal products, he added.

Due to the scarce supply of Halal products in the world, there is a great opportunity for Pakistan to capture this market, as a supplier of Halal certified products.