Non-tariff barriers are the biggest challenge for Pakistan’s exports. These are in the form of non-tariff barriers like standards, technical regulations, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and conformity assessment procedures.

Maintaining of quality and standards is important for Pakistan’s exporters to remain competitive in international markets. The country plans to ask China and the United States for help in upgrading the laboratories to the international mandatory standards.

The Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority has already been established to ensure quality products. On the other hand, the high charges taken by the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Pakistan Industrial Technical Assistance Centre for making various tests are causing a lot of problems for small and medium exporters who have to meet the conditions laid down by their foreign buyers.

Large industrial set-ups have their in-house test lab facilities whereas small and medium exporters are compelled to pay a high price for each test. The Synthetic Fiber Development and Application Centre, for instance, was established about three years ago to facilitate small and medium sized exporters test their export products as required by their customers. But exporters complain that for one single test they have to pay around Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, which puts an extra burden on the input cost of products.