KARACHI (July 06 2009): Commerce Minister Amin Fahim has said that the new trade policy will be announced in the third week of this month. Talking to media at the Fourth Rice Export Trophy Award, organised by Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (Reap) at a hotel here on Sunday, the minister said that consultations with all chambers were going on to finalise the trade policy. He said that MoU between Pakistan and India on Afghan Transit Trade had been signed and further negotiations were underway. However, any decision for its implementation would be taken in the best interests of the country, he added. Regarding registration of basmati trademark, the minister said: "We have to pay our attention on quality and value-addition to compete in the international markets". He asked all stakeholders of rice trade to adopt modern technology to boost production and exports of this commodity, which has already registered remarkable growth. Earlier, the minister congratulated the Reap members for a remarkable achievement of $2 billion rice exports during FY09. "We are proud of our exporters, who made Pakistan the third largest rice exporting country in the world this year", he said. He asked the rice exporters to adopt modern technology to compete in global markets and to capture new markets for this commodity. "This is a matter of pride that Pakistani rice is the best in quality in the world, and not a single country can claim to compete with us as far as quality is concern", he added. He said that due to the prevailing law and order situation in some parts of the country, foreign investors are being advised by their governments to avoid investment and travel in Pakistan. "This is a very serious issue for all of us", he said, urging the exporters to work for image building of the country so that new investment could come into the country. "We have to change the present situation to attract more foreign investment in the country", he added. Earlier, Reap Chairman Abdul Rahim Janoo in his address of welcome said that rice is the only sector that registered a tremendous growth with exports of over $2 billion in FY09. "We achieved this remarkable growth despite global recession, financial crunch and strong price competition in the international markets due to bumper crop in almost all rice producing countries", he said. He pointed out that Reap has set its target of $4 billion rice exports under \'Vision 2012\'. He requested the government to reduce the withholding tax on small packages, from 1.0 percent to 0.5 percent, to encourage Reap members for value-addition. He also requested for matching grant facility for rice exporters in re-finance part II only for one year and to approve $100 per ton on all rice exports as research and development (RD) fund as this would enable rice exporters to do extensive R&D, which is need of the time, specially to introduce new rice varieties. He also requested for some other incentives for rice exporters for boosting the trade. The CEO of Trade Development Authority, Muhibullah Shah, and Vice Chairman of Reap, Haroon-ur-Rasheed, also spoke on this occasion. Deputy Speaker of Sindh Assembly, Shehla Raza, Sindh Minister for Commerce and Industries Rauf Siddiqui, Chairman, Trading Corporation of Pakistan Saeed Ahmed Khan also attended the ceremony. Later, the Commerce Minister gave gold medals and trophies to top rice exporters, both in basmati and non-basmati categories, for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08. On the occasion, the Minister was presented Gold Medal by Reap chairman for excellent services rendered for rice export industry. TDAP CEO Muhaibullah Shah was also given a shield for his continued support for Reap.