The National Assembly resumed its session in Islamabad on Monday afternoon with Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair.
The National Assembly was informed on Monday that new factories of Urea are being set up in the country to meet the increasing demand of the fertilizer in the country.
Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Najeebuddin Awaisi told the House during question hour that during the last four years 2.24 million metric ton of Urea worth 876 million dollars has been imported. He said no urea was exported from the country during the last four years.
To a question, the Parliamentary Secretary said there is no restriction on import of rice from Pakistan by the United Arab Emirates and Iran. He said the Iranian government imposes a seasonal ban on the import of rice every year from July to December in order to protect their domestic growers but this year due to unknown reasons the ban was lifted last month.
Answering a question, Najeebuddin Awaisi informed the House that Pakistan-China volume of trade which was four billion dollars in 2006-07 has reached at 13.77 billion dollars last year.
He said Pakistan’s exports have jumped to 1.69 billion dollars from 575 million dollars in the same period. He said a number of steps have been taken by Ministry of Commerce for balance of trade with China.
To a question, he said Pakistan did not sign any trade agreement with United Kingdom during the last three years. He said owing to the GSP Plus arrangement between Pakistan and European Union, Pakistani exports enjoy duty free access in all member states of EU including UK.