ISLAMABAD: Chinese authorities, during the fourth round of second phase negotiations on Pak-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) held in Beijing, has asked Pakistan to export its agricultural products to China as there is not restriction on export of citrus and mango between the two countries.
The authorities of both the friendly countries discussed tariff reduction, regulatory duties, trade in services and investment, E-commerce and visa facilitation during the negotiations.
FTA is in effect since 2006 and the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) expressed its concern over the insufficient utilisation of the facilities provided under the FTA in which only few sectors have been able to reap the fruits of the favourable tariffs in an in assessment of the FTA.
During the two-day -long negotiations, both sides also tried to come to some agreement and unanimity of views on reconciled trade figures quoted in the light of study conducted respectively to find out the reasons for this discrepancy. They also discussed the findings of the Working Group on Customs on modalities of establishing Customs Electronic Data Exchange related to the implementation of FTA.
It is pertinent to mention that trade volume due to agreement between the two states was $13 billion in 2013, while is expected to reach $15 billion by end 2015. China had been contributing significantly to Pakistan’s imports even before the FTA was signed and has seen considerable improvement in its ranking after the FTA was implemented in 2007. By 2012, it was the source for 15% of Pakistan’s overall imports from the world as compared to 9.8% in 2006.
