China has agreed to revisit its free trade agreement (FTA) with Pakistan, aiming to provide more advantages to Pakistani exporters and rectify the trade imbalance between the two nations.
During a recent visit to Beijing, Caretaker Commerce Minister Gohra Ijaz urged the Chinese authorities to reconsider the FTA, known as the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) Phase-II.
Sources within the Ministry of Commerce disclosed that Pakistan plans to submit a new list of priority tariff lines to China, seeking additional concessions on its export products.
Signed in 2019 and in effect since January 1, 2020, CPFTA Phase-II was designed to strengthen trade and economic cooperation between Pakistan and China, recognized as strategic partners and neighboring nations.
The caretaker commerce minister also extended an invitation to Chinese industrialists to invest in Pakistan’s special economic zones, establishing a working group to facilitate the transfer of more Chinese industries to Pakistan.
In a recent Senate finance committee meeting, it was revealed that there exists a trade volume gap of $3-4 billion between Pakistan and China. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is actively working to acquire real-time data from China to verify these figures.
