S. M. Tanveer concerned over a bill to amend Trade Organization Rules

LAHORE: FPCCI Leader and Patron-in-Chief UBG, Mr. S. M. Tanveer, has expressed serious concern over a bill tabled in the National Assembly seeking to amend the Trade Organization Rules (TORs) 2013. He warned that any change in the law could lead to the closure of numerous representative bodies across the country.

While talking to Mr. Khalid Tawab, Regional Chairman UBG Sindh, Mr. Tanveer said the move has panicked the business community nationwide, noting that the business environment is already shaky due to internal and external trade barriers and pressures.

“Chambers of Commerce and Industry are the last refuge of the business community where they can raise their concerns and voices for the collective good,” he said.

Any such confinement of trade bodies to municipal city limits may exclude industrial estates, SME clusters in tehsils, and rural export-oriented businesses from proper representation, he apprehended.

Mr. Tanveer emphasized that altering the TORs 2013 would cause massive discouragement and disappointment, severely impacting trade bodies representing women entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises. The proposed legislation would eliminate district-level chambers, wiping out an institutional structure built over years and devastating district economies.

He highlighted that district chambers play a vital role in shaping local economies, following global practices of developing business clusters for economic growth. “The movers of this idea are planning to reverse this theory in Pakistan to serve their vested interests,” Mr. Tanveer lamented.

The Patron-in-Chief UBG urged lawmakers to reject the bill, allowing district chambers to continue serving as the backbone of the economy. He warned that eliminating them would devastate small and medium enterprises, which lack resources to be represented at the city chamber level.