WASHINGTON: The United States has said that the ministerial meeting of Trade and Investment Framework Agreement Council in Pakistan “exemplifies our commitment to deepening our economic and commercial ties with Pakistan.”
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Speaking at a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Ned Priced said “we believe that a robust trade relationship between the United States and Pakistan is more important than ever to bolster Pakistan’s economic stability as it recovers from devastating floods, while at the same time also providing opportunity to Americans and to American businesses in this country, exposing them to new markets – Pakistani markets in this case.”
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Ned Price said “our trade relationship with Pakistan has helped both Pakistani industries and consumers. We have long been Pakistan’s largest export market, with potential for even further growth, hence the meeting today. And we believe there is great potential to expand bilateral trade with Pakistan further, particularly in energy, agricultural equipment and products, franchising, retail trade, information and communications technology products and services.”
He further said that the United States had been a leading investor in Pakistan for the past two decades, and in the past year our investments had increased by some 50 percent.
“U.S. investment in Pakistan is the highest it’s been in over a decade, and U.S. corporations have announced more than $1.5 billion in investment plans in Pakistan since 2019. U.S. companies and their local affiliates, moreover, are among Pakistan’s largest employers, with roughly 80 U.S. companies directly employing more than 120,000 Pakistanis,” he added.
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Responding to a question about series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan and possible US help to crush terror networks in Afghanistan, Ned Price said “our engagement on this subject (of terrorism) is rooted in the fact that terrorism is a threat that has taken many Pakistani, Afghan, other innocent lives over the course of far too many years now. The United States and Pakistan have a shared interest in ensuring the Taliban live up to the commitments that they have made, and that terrorist groups that may be active in Afghanistan – like ISIS-K, TTP, al-Qaida, as you mentioned – are no longer able to threaten regional stability. I refer you to Pakistani authorities for questions about their counterterrorism policy as it relates to Afghanistan, but at the end of the day, we do have shared interests.”
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