Pakistan finance minister due in US for ‘final' round of trade talks
Pakistan and the US have been engaged in talks after Washington announced a 29 percent 'reciprocal tariff' on Pakistani exports in April. Islamabad said the move, paused on April 9 for a 90-day period, may undercut its fragile, export-led recovery.
The US is Pakistan's top export destination, with shipments totaling $5.44 billion in fiscal year 2023-2024, according to official data. From July 2024 to February 2025, exports rose 10 percent from a year earlier.
The Pakistani finance ministry said the finalization of a trade agreement between Pakistan and the US will benefit both economies, noting opportunities for partnership between the two countries in various sectors.
'US is Pakistan's largest trading partner. Pakistan is keen to expand bilateral trade ties to traditional and non-traditional sectors,' it said.
'There are vast opportunities for partnership between the two countries in key sectors such as information technology, minerals and agriculture.'
This is Aurangzeb's second visit to the US this month. The finance minister last week said that Islamabad and Washington were exploring a shift in their economic engagement, anchored in long-term investment.
'One thing we discussed was that we have to move beyond the immediate trade imperative for it to be brought into the next level and bring in a real step change,' he said, following his meeting with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington.
'So, the investment imperative will come forward, and areas have already been identified in terms of minerals and mining, in terms of AI [artificial intelligence], in terms of digital infrastructure [and] crypto,' Aurangzeb said.
'We feel that this will be a real game changer, God willing, in terms of the relationship and the economic relationship between Pakistan and the United States.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
6 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Seahawks general manager John Schneider gets contract extension through 2031
Seattle Seahawks general manager and president of football operations John Schneider signed a contract extension through the 2031 season on Wednesday. Schneider is the longest-tenured GM in franchise history, having held the job since 2010. The Seahawks did not disclose terms of the deal. 'The extension of general manager John Schneider's contract is a testament to his 15-plus years of football leadership and success,' Seahawks owner Jody Allen said in a statement. 'I am confident that John will continue to deliver real results and a continued strong partnership with head coach Mike Macdonald that is already contributing to our winning culture on and off the field.' The 54-year-old Schneider first joined the Seahawks in 2000 as director of player personnel and then returned to the franchise in 2010 as GM and executive vice president. Seattle made the playoffs in Schneider's first season and won the Super Bowl in his fourth. During Schneider's time as GM, the Seahawks have compiled the sixth-best record in the NFL at 147-96-1 and have won 10 or more games in nine of the past 13 seasons. Seattle has made the playoffs 10 times in 15 seasons and has won five NFC West titles and two conference championships under Schneider.
Al Arabiya
36 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
Biden aide denounces GOP probe as baseless and denies any cover-up
WASHINGTON—A longtime close aide to President Joe Biden on Wednesday denounced Republican investigations into the former president as baseless in testimony to lawmakers and defended Biden as capable of carrying out his presidential duties at all times. Steve Ricchetti, a senior advisor to Biden during his presidency, wrote in his opening statement to the House Oversight Committee that he was willing to answer lawmakers' questions about Biden's mental state while in office despite Republicans' effort to intimidate officials who served in the previous administration. 'I believe it is important to forcefully rebut this false narrative about the Biden presidency and our role in it,' Ricchetti said. 'There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president's senior staff and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president's mental condition from the American people,' wrote Ricchetti, who has served as an aide to Biden since 2012. He said Biden was fully capable of carrying out his duties throughout his term. Ricchetti's testimony comes after weeks of appearances from former Biden aides as House Republicans seek to build their investigation, which is central to their oversight agenda as they seek to turn the spotlight back to the last administration. Some former staffers, including Biden's physician Kevin O'Connor and Anthony Bernal, a top aide to former first lady Jill Biden, invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions from the committee. Others, including former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and Neera Tanden, former director of the Domestic Policy Council, have answered the committee's questions at length. The committee will hear from seven more senior Biden staffers in the coming weeks. The Trump White House has launched its own inquiry into Biden. In June, Trump issued an executive order that argued there were clear indications that Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his presidential authority and ordered an investigation into whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the president. Ricchetti argued the Republican-led inquiries were an obvious attempt to deflect from the chaos of this administration's first six months. He contrasted it with what he said were Biden's accomplishment on issues like infrastructure, inflation, climate policy, and the coronavirus response. 'I firmly believe that at all times during my four years in the White House President Biden was fulfilling his constitutional duties. Did he stumble? Occasionally. Make mistakes? Get up on the wrong side of the bed? He did–we all did. But I always believed–every day–that he had the capability, character and judgment to be president of the United States,' Ricchetti said. At the heart of the Republican probe is a legal dispute over the Biden White House's use of the autopen, a device used in all presidential administrations to issue the president's signature for laws and executive orders. Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration allege without evidence that Biden was not in a cogent state of mind for much of his presidency and that many policies enacted during his time in office may consequently be illegal. Biden has called Trump and House Republicans liars for the claim and said he made every single one of the decisions in office that involved an autopen. Biden's aides are now echoing that sentiment directly to the committee. Republicans are still eager to highlight Biden's various gaffes as a political cudgel against Democrats. Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, have largely dismissed House Republicans' probe as a distraction from the Trump administration's agenda. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat who sits on the House Oversight Committee, said Republicans in the probe look like losers after she exited the deposition for Anthony Bernal, the former chief of staff to Jill Biden.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Democrats use obscure law to seek release of Epstein files
WASHINGTON: Democrats moved Wednesday to force Donald Trump to release files from the investigation into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, invoking an obscure law to keep up the pressure on an issue that has roiled the US president's administration. The White House has been facing increasingly intense demands to be more transparent about the case of the disgraced financier, who died in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The president raised further questions about his past relationship with Epstein on Tuesday when he told reporters he fell out with his former friend after he 'stole' female employees from the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The Justice Department angered Trump supporters earlier this month when it confirmed that Epstein had died by suicide and had no secret 'client list' — rebuffing conspiracy theories held by Trump's far-right supporters about supposedly high-level Democratic complicity. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wrote to the Justice Department asking for the materials under a section of federal law known as the 'rule of five.' 'The public has a right to know who enabled, knew of, or participated in one of the most heinous sex trafficking operations in history,' Schumer told reporters at the Capitol. 'Let me remind everyone of what's happened in recent months. Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the Epstein files. He broke that promise.' The measure — introduced a century ago but rarely used — requires government departments to provide relevant information if any five members of the Senate's chief watchdog panel request it. Epstein's accomplice Maxwell It is not clear if it could be enforced in court, but even if the effort fails it keeps the spotlight on an issue that has upended Trump's summer, dividing Republicans and leading to the early closure of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Trump has urged his supporters to drop demands for the Epstein files, but Democrats in Congress — with limited Republican support — have also been seeking a floor vote to force their release. House Oversight Committee Democrats, backed by some Republicans, approved a subpoena last week for the Justice Department to hand over the documents, although the demand has yet to be sent. Lawmakers have also been seeking testimony from Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for her role in his alleged crimes. Maxwell's lawyer has said she would speak to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if granted immunity for her testimony. 'The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,' a spokesman for the panel said. Democrats have tried to attach votes on the Epstein files to unrelated bills multiple times, prompting Speaker Mike Johnson to send lawmakers home for the summer a day early last week, shutting down the efforts. Senate Democrats launched a separate effort to get the files released via a bill called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but this cannot even be taken up until the House reconvenes in September. Meanwhile the Supreme Court's justices are expected to consider at a September 29 conference ahead of their October term whether to hear an appeal by Maxwell of her sex trafficking conviction. 'This crime by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell was not a victimless crime.... It was about exploiting women, in fact, girls — girls who were mercilessly and repeatedly subject to abuse and trafficking,' said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.
