ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that the government will consult with all stakeholders before signing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Turkey as both the countries had agreed to sign this agreement during the recent visit of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to enhance bilateral trade to $10 billion from existing volume of $650 million.
Khurram said that the trade agreements signed by the Ministry of Commerce will be based upon market research in future and Pak-Turkey FTA will result in increase in exports in the textiles, agro and dairy and livestock sectors. The MoC has constituted Services Export Council recently which will help promote the exports of software, insurance and banking services from Pakistan to Turkey, he added.
The minister said that in order to protect local manufacturing, more and more countries are resorting to trade defence mechanisms instead of high tariffs, adding that Pakistan is in the process of strengthening the institutional and human resource capacity of its trade defence organisations by empowering them through laws which will soon be implemented.
