ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Thailand on Monday made a rapid start on talks on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as both sides quickly reviewed the progress made on the shared notes in the first phase of talks last year.
Moreover, officials of the ministries of commerce of both the countries also reviewed the shard documents in the light of major developments taken place during the last one year on economic and business horizons.
Sources told Customs Today that both the delegations after inaugural session jointly led by Additional Secretary Ministry of Commerce Rubina Athar and Deputy Director-General of the Thai Commerce Ministry Sunanta Kangvalkulkij decided to form working groups on several issues.
These working groups comprise experts on related issues and will hold in depth discussions for next two days and then come back to their respective delegation heads with proposals and recommendations on given topics.
“On the last day, Wednesday, the delegations with the approval of their leaders, will exchange the agreed points and then go back to their respective ministries for further guidance” head of Pakistani side Additional Secretary Rubina Athar told Customs Today exclusively, saying that since evolution of consensus on terms and conditions was a lengthy and lethargic procedure therefore it was not possible for both Pakistan and Thailand to finalize FTA within the current year.
“Although both the countries are willing to conclude the ongoing discussions on FTA at the earliest, yet a number of hurdles and anomalies hinder significant progress on the said subject” Rubina Athar further commented.
Therefore, both Pakistan and Thailand will try to conclude a free-trade agreement (FTA) by next year, not only to promote trade and closer cooperation between the two, but also so each country can use the other as a springboard into the South Asia and ASEAN regions respectively.
Both the sides will discuss limiting the time frame for each topic, so that the FTA can be concluded within the target of mid-2017. Pak-Thai FTA will be beneficial to both countries and significantly increase bilateral trade and investment.
To a question about Pakistan’s expectations with FTA with Thailand, she said that Pakistan under the policy guidelines of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wished to become business partner to ASEAN Economic Community; therefore, policy of signing FTA with members of ASEAN Economic Community was being followed.
She said that next two days’ talks would remained confined to issues related to tariff reductions, customs procedures, and cooperation in many sectors such as sanitary standards, trade remedy measures, trade facilitation, and technical barriers and laws that should be eliminated to promote trade growth in three days’ negotiations here in the federal capital.
It is pertinent to note here that Thailand enjoyed a trade surplus of $734 million with Pakistan in 2014, and similar trade surpluses has been registered by the Thai Kingdom since 2010.
Moreover, tune of bilateral trade reached $1.01 billion in 2014. Pakistan’s imports from Thailand were worth $874 million.
Major import products from Thailand to Pakistan are fabrics, textiles, vehicles and parts, air-conditioners and parts, plastics, and chemical goods. Similarly, major Pakistani exports to Thailand are machinery and parts, musical instruments, processed and semi-processed fishery products, ore, and steel.
