Turkey should remove local preventive in PTA/FTA with Pakistan.

KARACHI -- Turkey should remove local preventive in PTA/FTA with Pakistan, said Engr Daroo Khan Achakzai, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry in a press release issued Friday. He said that in the past, textile exports to Turkey was based on normal tariffs of imports, but later Turkey imposed protective duties i.e. 18% which were very high, leading to decline in the earlier registered increase in the textile exports to Turkey. The volume of bilateral trade between both nations drastically reduced from US$ 1.08 billion to US$ 792 million after imposition of protective duty on textile.

In his statement, he appreciated the efforts of Government of Pakistan and Turkey to enter into Strategic Economic Framework (SEF) for enhancement of bilateral relations in trade, tourism, healthcare, hospitality, industry, education, housing, agriculture, aviation and banking. He further stated that Pakistan and Turkey has concluded nine rounds of negotiations including SEF; but so far the reports/outcome of negotiation has been not shared with the concerned stakeholders. He emphasized on the need of strong homeworking of the government with the consultation of stakeholders for formulating list of concessionary items for FTA in trade with Turkey.

Turkey being part of customs union with the EU, providing assumption that Pakistan may also have access to Turkish market under GSP+ status. This assumption was diluted due to refusal of Turkey to extend GSP+ status to Pakistan and Turkey proposed conducting negotiations on bilateral FTA...