Pakistani Pharmaceutical Enterprises Urge Government to Raise Tariff on Drugs fr

According to a report on May 2, 2010 from Pakistani newspaper the Business Recorder, Pakistani pharmaceutical enterprises urged Pakistani Government to impose the highest tariff rate of 25% on part of drugs imported from China on the basis of price appraisal. They also suggested that administrations in charge of trade frictions, such as Pakistani National Tariff Commission (NTC), should take necessary measures to protect domestic pharmaceutical enterprises.

The report claims that large quantities of drugs have been imported from China and India in recent years, although 90% of them for domestic demand can be domestically produced nowadays. According to the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry, the import of drugs has brought crucial threat and impact to domestic industry. They required the Government to impose the highest tariff rate based on the appraised price of imported drugs and reduce the import tariff rate on pharmaceutical raw materials to 5% from the current level of more than 10%.