ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastigar Khan has ruled out any possibility affecting the bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran by any kind of tension.
Trade and business activities are continuing as per routine and not a single shipment of consignment has been affected due to the situation emerged in the backlash of an alleged Iranian involvement with Indian agencies in sabotaging law and order situation in Balochistan.
In an exclusive interview with Customs Today, Khurram Dastgir said that bilateral trade and commerce relations between Pakistan and Iran remained unhurt by any unwanted jolt or blow as both the countries were committed to stand with each other in the wake of any kind of untoward situation.
“Therefore, both countries are going to hold Joint Economic Commission (JEC) next month after the Eid to explore more avenues for taking bilateral trade relations further heights” he said. “The JEC will deliberate on the draft of free trade agreement between both the countries as the Pakistan has shared draft of the said FTA with Iran and Iranian draft is awaited” he added.
In this regard, he said that Ministry of Commerce prepared the draft of proposed FTA through extensive discussions with almost all the concerned stakeholders and proposals and recommendations moved by the local industrial and trade bodies were duly incorporated in the said draft.
He further maintained that Pak-Iran FTA would be in the mutual benefit of both the countries as well as it would ease access of Pakistani products in countries beyond Iran, including Iraq, Turkey and others.
He was of the view that FTA would cover trade in goods, services and investment as the objective was to boost bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2021. The agreement is part of the five-year strategic trade cooperation (2016-2021).
He further observed that the framework agreement would deal with subjects such as trade in goods, trade facilitation, rules of origin and dispute settlement. The FTA framework will set modalities for tariff reductions on 80pc of tariff lines. The rules of origin, concession lists and negative lists shall be accordingly exchanged and finalised within the agreed timeframe.
Similarly, he opined that the FTA would take care of the monitoring and implementation mechanisms. It will be ensured that an inbuilt mechanism is provided for dispute settlement as well as administrative coordination in addressing operational issues after the implementation of the FTA. The concessions as agreed earlier under the preferential trade agreement (PTA) will continue to operate till signing of the FTA.
Commenting on the latest development on talks with China on second phase of proposed free trade agreement (FTA), Minister said that Ministry of Commerce had carried out an consultative exercise on whether Pakistan should strike an FTA with China or not. The study report has been accomplished now and will be shared with media and concerned stakeholders after Ramazan.
Commenting on the findings of the study report, he said that although the report had endorsed FTA with China but a large chunk of local industrial and trade bodies had also opposed this move, declaring it as harmful and damaging for local industry.
Therefore, we have decided to hold another consultative process with both media and concerned stakeholders after Eid” he said adding that Ministry of Commerce would organize open symposium and conferences typed events to get firsthand knowledge about the pulse of the people about the government’s move for entering into the FTA with China. He announced that if majority of people opposed FTA with China, then government would also express regret to Chinese friends for not entering in FTA.
However, while responding to a question about possible objectives and benefits of FTA with China, Minister said that main objectives included integration of respective economies of Pakistan and China for mutual benefits, provision of a predictable investment regime in the Services sector especially in Infrastructure, Computer & related Services, Educational Services, Research & Development, Tourism, Sporting Services and Environmental Services like sewage and cleaning services as well as promotion of joint ventures to build the capacity of domestic service suppliers, transfer of technology and creation of new jobs in Pakistan.
While giving an overview of year to year volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Chine in recent years, Khurram Dastgir said that trade volume due to agreement between the two states was $13 billion in 2013, and reached to $20 billion by 2015 when both countries signed 51 agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in different fields.
“China had been contributing significantly to Pakistan’s imports even before the FTA was signed and has seen considerable improvement in its ranking after the FTA was implemented in 2007. By 2012, it was the source for 15% of Pakistan’s overall imports from the world as compared to 9.8% in 2006” he observed.
