Pakistan has comparative advantage in recently signed CPFTA -II: Senate body informed.

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Commerce and Textiles Industry was informed on Monday that Pakistan has comparative advantage in recently signed China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)-II as compared to the agreement signed in 2006.

The CPTFA was concluded after the 11th round of negotiation in April 2019 and was signed during the prime minister's recent visit to China in which Pakistan got tariff relaxation and free market excess on 313 tariff lines in potential Chinese market, Ministry of Commerce Joint Secretary Shafiq Shahzad briefed the committee.

The Senate committee meeting was chaired by Senator Mirza Muhammad Afridi to initiate the discussion on five point agenda including the briefing in the CPFTA-II here at Parliament House.

Briefing the committee, Shafiq Shahzad said Pakistan entered in FTA with China on November 24, 2006, which became operational in July 2007.

He said the bilateral trade between the two countries had reached $17.2 billion in 2017-18 as Chinese exports to Pakistan grew from $ 3.5 billion to $ 15.7 billion from 2006-07 to 2017-18.

He said Phase-I of CPFTA completed in five years by end of 2012 and under the phase-I ,Pakistan liberalized 35.6% of tariff lines,19.9 % of the tariff lines were placed in category -II with tariff rates at 5 % or less.

He informed that after the impact assessment, and public and private stakeholder's consultation (2016-19) it emerged that achieving the agreed phase-II Tariff Reduction Modalities (TRM) would be a great challenge.

During the course of negotiation, Pakistan conveyed its dissatisfaction over the lopsided outcome of the FTA, highlighting unequal gains due to eroded margin of preference and maintained that Phase-II negotiation should be independent...