ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has approved cross-border trade reforms under the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The Customs Department would adopt the reforms in six to 24 months.
According to an official source, the reforms have been sent to Commerce Ministry and the authorities concerned will further discuss the reforms with stakeholders before notifying them.
The TFA was launched in 2013 as a global agenda to ease border trade. Pakistan ratified the TFA in October 2015. The agreement came into effect on February 22 after its ratification from 110 members of the WTO.
As part of the agreement, member-countries committed reforms to the WTO in A, B and C categories. All reforms that Pakistan committed in the A category have already been implemented after the ratification of the agreement. The proposed revised commitment is mostly related to the customs and will be placed under B and C categories.
The FBR has committed that in six months it will establish a help desk to provide trade-related information and ensure the segregation of customs duties, taxes, fees and charges.
