WTO Review Urges Further Pakistan Reforms

GENEVA — World Trade Organization members urged Pakistan in a review forum to push ahead with reform efforts to strengthen its economy and the global competitiveness of its goods, which includes a new five-year policy to revamp the country’s important textile and apparel sector by 2019. “We encourage Pakistan to keep pressing forward with economic reforms that make Pakistan a more attractive trade and investment partner,” Michael Punke, deputy U.S. Trade Representative, told a two-day WTO review last week of the South Asian nation’s trade regime. Punke said bilateral trade between the U.S. and Pakistan “while healthy by any measure, still shows room for expansion,” and noted that in 2014 U.S. imports from Pakistan were $3.7 billion and U.S. exports to Pakistan were $1.9 billion. He said the U.S. views Pakistan as an important partner not only on trade issues but also in global efforts on combating terrorism, and summed up, “We view Pakistan as a positive long-term bet.” Muhammad Shehzad Arbab, Pakistan’s secretary of commerce, told WTO delegates that in a bid to improve the business environment the government was launching a “virtual one-stop shop for multiple business registrations,” and also the rollout of “a Web-based one customs system at all customs

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Arvind to Pay Ralph Lauren $3.2 Million in USPA Settlement

Ralph Lauren Corp., the United States Polo Association and USPA’s Indian licensee appear to have reached a resolution in their longstanding trademark dispute. Arvind Lifestyle Brands Ltd. has agreed to pay $3.2 million to Ralph Lauren Corp. to settle the more than decade-long battle between the American designer brand, USPA and USPA’s Indian licensee. Arvind Ltd. informed the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday that the settlement followed “good faith discussions” between the parties to resolve allegations that Arvind had failed to comply with a 2003 agreement calling for USPA merchandise to provide disclaimers indicating that USPA isn’t affiliated with Ralph Lauren. The settlement involved no admission of wrongdoing by any of the parties. Judge Thomas Griesa of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last year rejected a complaint by Ralph Lauren Corp. against USPA and Arvind and sent the case back for arbitration in Bangalore before a three-judge panel. Griesa cited the 2003 settlement, which called for disputes between the parties pertaining to apparel to be resolved through arbitration rather than litigation and, in cases involving a licensee or sublicensee, for matters to be considered in the “principal place of business” of the licensee. The two firms have waged something

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