Pak-Turkey FTA: specific sectors discussed at seventh round of talks: Dhaga

Secretary Ministry of Commerce, Younas Dhaga, has said that regarding Free Trade Agreement with Pakistan, the Turkish Commerce Ministry had received special directives from its President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan for early conclusion of FTA between the two countries. "Pakistan and Turkey had discussed the specific sectors including textile during the seventh round of negotiations on Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Turkey," Muhammad Younas Dhaga told APP here on Sunday.
Younas Dhaga led Pakistan's delegation on FTA in final round of negotiation. He said the two sides were carrying discussions on agreement on goods, services and investment. After signing of new FTA with Turkey both countries would be able to improve their trade balance, he added. Dhaga said that after the conclusion of bilateral FTA, Pakistan will get market access in agriculture and pharmaceutical sector in Turkey.
He said that Pakistan's major imports from Turkey include manmade textiles, towels, steel structure, tanning and plastic chemicals, processed milk and whey. Whereas, he said the country's major exports to Turkey are denim PET, ethanol, cotton yarn, fabric, rice, garments, leather, carpets, surgical instruments, sports good and chemicals. He said priority of the government was to promote trade liberalization for searching new potential markets in different parts of the world to increase the country's trade.
Replying to another question, he said that Pakistan has started initial negotiation for proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Vietnam and Indonesia to explore the potential markets of South East Asia. He further said the 10th round on FTA negotiation would start between Pakistan and Thailand in February 2018, in which both sides would present the complete offer list of FTA for reaching the final agreement.
Secretary Commerce said both sides had exchanged the final offer lists of items for free trade, including automobile and textile sectors in order to remove the reservations of both sectors. He said that coming round of negotiation with China under 2nd phase of FTA will be held on 6-7 February, 2018 in Islamabad.
The acceptance on 50 items for excess to Chinese market came during the coming round of negotiations held under 2nd phase of Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in China.