ISLAMABAD: Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Tuesday left for Turkey to represent Pakistan at the Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) of Pakistan and Turkey scheduled to be held in Istanbul today (Wednesday).
The JMC meeting will discuss ways and means for removal of anomalies in bilateral trade as the cargo train agreement already existed between Pakistan and Turkey and through implementing the agreement, Pakistan can send its exported goods to Istanbul (Turkey) in 15 days in a very cost effective manner and after five more days in the Western Europe.
Pakistan will try to get lower tariff on Pakistani textile exports whereas Turkish side may float proposal of “Limited Preferential Trade Agreement (Limited- PTA)”. “Therefore, Deputy Secretary Ministry of Commerce (MoC) Ahmad Fasih as well as 12 other representatives from various ministries, departments and organizations including Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Board of Investment (BoI), Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Ministry of Science & Technology (MoS&T) and Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) also accompanied with the Minister,” an official source at MoC told this scribe here on Tuesday.
The source said that Federal Minister for Commerce Khuram Dastgir will lead Pakistani delegation in the meeting whereas Turkish side will also be led by their concerned minister. The source revealed that Turkey had been ambitious for signing Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with Pakistan, but at the same time Turkish government had also imposed higher tariff on Pakistani textile exports, therefore, PTA was not in favour of Pakistan.
“Therefore, most probably, Turkish side would float a proposal of signing of Limited PTA,” the source added, saying that Pakistani side would try to get the higher tariff lowered by convincing the host country. “Moreover, Turkey has also been pressing for adopting the international standardization for Pakistani commercial items, therefore presence of representative of MoS&T was very much essential in the meeting,” the source added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Turkey’s principal exports to Pakistan are air transportation vehicles, textiles, defence industry products, chemicals, machinery, cereals and prefabricated house while fabric, garments, plastics and chemicals dominate Pakistani exports to Turkey.
Turkish companies are becoming more active in the energy sector in Pakistan and Turkish firms built first wind Turbines in Pakistan in 2009. On the other hand, Pakistan’s investment volume in Turkey is also growing. The total amount of FDI flow from Pakistan to Turkey exceeded 90 million $ in 2010. As of December 2010, 85 Pakistani companies are operating in Turkey. The bilateral trade between Pakistan and Turkey will further develop by the implementation of the decisions of Istanbul Forum 2014 held in Turkey. Though the balance of trade is in favour of Pakistan but statistics show the volume of trade has been reduced to $ 621.5 million in 2013 as compared to $ 1.2 billion in 2011.
