LAHORE – The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan has imposed visa restrictions on local exporters who applied for participating in AAPEX, a fair in the United States.
The industry circles, expressing disappointment over poor performance and lack of support from TDAP, which instead of facilitating and increasing the number of exhibitors in AAPEX, is only considering companies that have a valid visa for the United States.
“We have potential large exporters that wish to participate in the fair but don’t have the requisite visa to attend. And instead of assisting exporters in obtaining visa, the authority has imposed restrictions on several participants. As per past practice, visas are issued after recommendation letters from TDAP. With more than 7 months to go before the show starts, TDAP demand for valid visa from exhibitors is ridiculous,” manufactures said.
“We have written several letters, requesting local office as well as TDAP Karachi headquarters and CEO himself to address our concerns but they did not bother to respond to our request.”
They lamented the bureaucratic approach of TDAP creating lack of mutual cooperation between the exporters and concerned governments agencies.
“TDAP has been hosting a Pakistan Pavilion at this show since 2004. The US is a huge market and this particular show is the largest show in the auto OE and after-market sectors, this recent change in policy is a surprise and shock for regular attendees of this particular show,” they said.
They said that TDAP was assigned to work with exporters in close liaison for promoting trade and maximizing exports from Pakistan. They said that TDAP was also tasked to help facilitate exporters’ capabilities and capacities. However, all these goals were just on paper while the on-ground situation is that TDAP had failed to provide any worthwhile support to exporters for improving exports, they added.
The Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts & Accessories Manufacturers chairman, Munir Bana, and vice chairman, Usman Malik, viewed that its members participating in AAPEX are falling under the clause “h” of the participation policies. “We would like these members to be exempted from the policy and allowed to participate under full subsidy offered by the authority. The cost of participation has also reached an unsustainable level. TDAP has reduced the subsidy from 80:20 to 60:40 and the subsidy allowed on freight of samples has also been withdrawn.
“We have requested TDAP several times in the past to revisit their policies and alter them, as the engineering sector has completely different priorities and mechanisms for trade from all other sectors that TDAP caters.”
They disclosed that there had been a bad experience generally whenever Association members participated in any fair through TDAP, as it is poorly managed. TDAP moves very late on space bookings and consequently Pakistan gets poor locations due to which desired results are not achieved by our exhibitors.