ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States on Saturday called for greater American investment in the country’s minerals and surgical instruments industries, as Islamabad seeks to broaden economic ties with Washington while the two countries negotiate a new reciprocal trade agreement.
Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh made the pitch during meetings with business leaders in Chicago, highlighting opportunities for US investment in mineral processing and advanced manufacturing.
The outreach comes as Pakistan seeks to expand trade and investment relations with the US, its largest single-country export market, with officials in Islamabad trying to turn the recent improvement in political ties amid Pakistan’s mediation efforts to end the US-Iran war into a broader economic relationship.
“Ambassador Sheikh reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to fostering sustainable, investment-led economic partnerships with the United States that drive technology transfer, value addition, and mutual commercial growth,” the embassy statement said in a statement.
During a meeting hosted by the Pak American Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Sheikh urged business leaders to strengthen business-to-business links and explore opportunities to expand their ventures in Pakistan.
He separately met the president of Miracle Salt Works Collective Inc. who briefed him on the company’s $200 million joint venture with the state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation to crush, package and export Pakistani pink rock salt.
The ambassador described the project as a potential model for value-added foreign investment in Pakistan’s mineral sector.
He also visited Phoenix Instruments in Naperville, Illinois, which finishes, packages and distributes Pakistani-made surgical instruments for the US health care market.
Sheikh called for greater US investment in advanced manufacturing technology, workforce training and skills development to help Pakistan’s surgical industry move into higher-value and more technologically advanced production.
The US is an important trading partner for Pakistan and the largest individual destination for its exports, which are dominated by textiles and apparel.
US-Pakistan goods trade totaled an estimated $8.7 billion in 2025, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
US exports to Pakistan surged 56.6 percent to $3.3 billion, while imports from Pakistan rose 5.9 percent to $5.4 billion, leaving Washington with a $2.1 billion goods trade deficit.
The two countries agreed last year on a 19 percent US tariff on Pakistani goods, reduced from the 29 percent rate initially announced by President Donald Trump, but have continued negotiations on a broader reciprocal trade agreement covering trade and tariff issues.
