ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and the Trade Development Authority Pakistan (TDAP) will hold a single country exhibition in Tehran, primarily on textiles, in the first half of 2016 to benefit out of substantial potential for export of textiles to Iran.
“In this regard, the Minister for Commerce will write to its Iranian counterpart for allocation of space and schedule to hold the exhibition soon,” sources told Customs Today.
The source said that as result of the MoC’s efforts, the Iranian side had conveyed willingness to set up two additional crossing points at Gabd (Pakistan)-Reemdan (Iran) and Mand (Pakistan)–Pishin (Iran) to further ease trade activities between the two countries.
The MoC has conveyed its concurrence to the Ministry of Interior for opening of the two crossing points as it will be instrumental in enhancing the formal trade. Presently, there is only one international crossing point on Pak-Iran border, which is at Taftan (Pakistan) and Mirjaveh (Iran).
The source added that Pakistan and Iran had agreed to form a Pak-Iran Joint Working Group on Trade (JWG-Trade) and to formulate a Five-Year Plan to enhance bilateral trade during the commerce minister’s visit to Teheran in April last year.
Resultantly, the MoC presented its five-year plan, which was deliberated upon with the Iranian side in a meeting of JWG-Trade in August last year. The plan includes deepening and expansion of Pak-Iran PTA, removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers and measures relating to trade facilitation and trade promotion.
Moreover the source added that Minister for Commerce discussed a potential Pak-Iran Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Iranian Finance Minister in a meeting in Istanbul in November last year.
Therefore, the Joint Working Group on Trade, Pakistan will make the CEPA offer formally in upcoming meeting and it will enable both the countries to achieve $ 5 target of bilateral trade by easing transportation and improving facilities at entry points on border .
