Pakistan has conveyed serious concerns to China over growing trade deficit after the commencement of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and pressed for substantial changes in the pact. This is the crux of second round of two-day negotiations on FTA that commenced in Islamabad on Thursday.
Pakistan has already conveyed this view to the highest level in China and has sought unilateral tariff concessions on 268 new items outside the FTA. But China has not yet responded positively. Deputy DG Trade China, Zhu Hong is representing his country while Himayat Ullah Khan, senior Joint Secretary Commerce, is representing Pakistan.
In his opening remarks, Himayat Ullah Khan stated that both the sides were satisfied with the implementation status of the first phase of FTA, however, he was not happy with the growing trade deficit. "We feel that there is a need to conduct an empirical evaluation to help us understand some of the issues which we could better address in the second phase of negotiations," Khan added.
On the sidelines of the negotiations, Chinese delegation met with the Federal Minister for Commerce, Makhdoom Amin Fahim who highlighted the fact that Pakistan's economy was under great strain due to many reasons like war against terror, global economic meltdown and the worst floods in history of Pakistan.
He further stated that Pakistan's main concern is the growing trade deficit with China. Zhu Hong, the leader of the delegation, reiterated Chinese support in the fields of trade and economy. The minister was told that both the sides were officially moving ahead with the second phase of FTA negotiations. The first phase of FTA will come to an end by the end of 2012. The FTA negotiations for the first phase were concluded in 2006, and the agreement was signed in November 2006. Both the sides notified tariff concessions from 1st July 2007 in the first phase of tariff reduction.
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