According to newspaper reports, a group of eight developing nations, which include Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh and Egypt, is ready to implement preferential trade agreement from July 1 this year to give impetus to intra-trade activities. The group, formed in 1997, is officially named as D-8 and the proposed treaty will not only increase intra-trade within the member states up to 20 percent, but will also open the vistas of investment. The trade volume of the groupis likely to reach $500 billion by the end of 2018. The D-8 member countries are also ready to enhance collaboration and cooperation in various fields and will maintain active liaison within the customs departments to encourage legal trade. The customs officials of the member states are likely to meet within three months to develop a standard operating system and devise rules for the implementation of the free trade agreement. So far, the member states are focusing on the ratification of the agreement and for the resolution of rules of origin issue.
A meeting of the supervisory committee has been tasked to complete its working on a document for the settlement of disputes and to encourage the member states to ratify the preferential trade agreement and give incentives to the private sector to develop business-to-business contacts. The promotion of trade within the group will be beneficial for all the member states as they will not only have to reduce their reliance on the Western markets but will also have to curtail their trade volume with newly emerged industrial giant China. Under the agreement, the member countries will provide concessions on tariff lines and Islamabad has sent its concessionary list to the D-8 secretariat. Experts believe that the preferential trade agreement will eventually pave the way for signing of a free trade agreement among D-8 countries.
The current trade volume within the D-8 countries is very small and needs to be enhanced. The total exports of Pakistan to D-8 member states remained $1.602 billion against imports of $3.67 billion in 2014-15. Pakistan’s trade volume with its neighbouring country Iran is $30 million, Turkey $309.2 million, Bangladesh $697.6 million, Indonesia $143.2 million, Malaysia $205.1 million, Egypt $150.9 million and Nigeria $66.7 million. The group will have to relax visa regimes to encourage businessmen to visit the member countries and find business opportunities. It is good omen that all the group members are Muslim majority countries, sharing almost similar cultures and similar vision on the international issues. As such, enhanced trade activities will be beneficial for all the group members.
