Pakistan-Turkiye trade in goods agreement comes into force

ISLAMABAD: Trade in Goods Agreement between Pakistan and Turkiye has come into force from May 1, 2023, as per mutual agreement.

In August, 2022 the Trade in Goods Agreement was signed by the Turkish Minister for Trade, Mehmet Mus and Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, which was witnessed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Syed Naveed Qamar said that the agreement would open up new opportunities to boost bilateral trade across various sectors.

Need stressed to further improve Pak-Turkey trade

He stressed the need to increase business-to-business interaction for strengthening trade and investment relations between the brotherly countries.

The agreement would bring into effect reciprocal tariff concessions extended to select exports of both the countries, Naveed Qamar added.

He said the Trade in Goods Agreement signifies a notable milestone in the historic brotherly relations between Pakistan and Türkiye and envisages further integration of the markets and business communities of both countries.

Under the agreement, Pakistan has gained preferential access to the Turkish market under 261 tariff lines covering traditional as well as non-traditional sectors such as leather, rice, dates, mangoes, cutlery, sports goods, seafood, processed agricultural products, rubber tubes and tyres, plastics, and engineering goods whereas concessions on 130 tariff lines have been extended to Türkiye, including products such as black tea, processed food products and flavorings, industrial raw materials and parts of machinery, and parts of electronic equipment.

Both countries have also agreed to achieve strategic goal of enhancing bilateral trade to US 5 billion dollars in the medium-term. Both countries signed a “Framework Agreement for Establishing a Free Trade Area between Pakistan and the Turkiye” on March 22, 2016. In the agreement, both sides indicated their commitment to gradually establish the Turkiye-Pakistan Free Trade Area covering trade in goods.

Pakistan had been engaged in intensive negotiations for a Trade in Goods Agreement with Turkiye, in consultation with public and private stakeholders in Pakistan. The agreement would be an important breakthrough in improving economic relations between the two countries and was a key agenda point during the recent visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Turkiye from May 31, 2022 to June 2, 2022.

During this visit, minister for Commerce of Pakistan and minister for Trade of Turkiye signed a Joint Ministerial Statement on “Developing Bilateral Trade and Economic Relations between the two countries”, whereby, both sides expressed the resolve to work for increasing bilateral trade to $ 5 billion in three years, as well as to expeditiously conclude the Trade in Goods Agreement on the basis of mutual benefit.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023