ISLAMABAD: The Chinese government has announced to give Pakistan more trade concessions under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA).
Both the neighbouring countries have agreed to expedite negotiations on the CPFTA-II and decided to finalise it soon. This was decided in a meeting between Pakistani Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan and Chinese Minister for Commerce Gao Hucheng in Beijing. This was the first meeting between the ministers of commerce of the two countries since negotiations on the CPFTA-II started. The ministers decided that the Tariff Reduction Modality (TRM) for the second phase of CPFTA would be finalised soon.
The Commerce minister said that the second phase of CPFTA should be based on the principle of less than equal reciprocity in favour of Pakistan. This principle entails that China would give tariff concessions to Pakistan, which it has given to other FTA trading partners.
