Engineering Post Report
Pakistan and China were engaged in negotiations for revising the existing Free trade Agreement (FTA) between the two time-tested friendly countries in order to balance the bilateral trade which was currently largely in favour of China.
For the interest of the readers, it is pertinent to briefly state here as to what is an FTA ?
Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are pacts between two friendly or more countries for facilitating trade by reducing or eliminating tariffs, quitas, and other trade barriers between the signatory countries.
Pakistan has FTAs with Sri Lanka, China, Malaysia. Pakistan is also a part of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and has preferential trade agreements with Iran, Indonesia, Turkey and Mauritius. .
China and Pakistan had signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006 which became effective in 2007 aiming at enhancing bilateral trade by eliminating tariffs on a wide range of products over time. Under this agreement, both countries had agreed to gradually reduce tariffs on various goods, promoting trade and economic cooperation between them. The FTA so signed between China and Pakistan was revised and two countries had signed CPFTA-11 in April 2019 which was implemented only from January 2020.
Both the countries aimed to take the bilateral to $15-20 billion by the time the FTA second phase was completed. More information in this regard as to what is FTA between any two or more countries is being gathered from official sources concerned and will be printed on these pages in due course of time , please.
