KARACHI : The Businessmen Panel (BMP) of the FPCCI said that there is no
progress to report on the proposed FTA with Turkey.
Despite several rounds of talks and negotiations spanning over a decade by the officials of
Commerce Ministry, progress has yet to be made on reaching a free trade
agreement (FTA) with Turkey which is unfortunate.
Chairman BMP, Mian Anjum Nisar said Pakistan and Turkey have been engaged
in FTA talks since 2004. There was a renewed push to complete the
negotiations a few years ago when the Turkish prime minister visited
Pakistan.
He said Pakistan has potential to enhance its exports to Turkey up to
$5billion with the greatest capacity in the trade of instruments, surgical
appliances and agriculture products, however it is desire that Pakistan
should emphasize on pressing for tariff reduction on its high potential
export products.“While the tariffs faced by the top 10 high potential items
of Pakistan are low (9.6 percent or below) but there is a significant
difference between tariffs placed on Pakistan and other Turkey’s Free Trade
Agreement partners like Egypt and Jordon. Though Turkey’s FTA partners
Egypt and Jordan enjoy tariffs significantly lower than those currently
faced by Pakistan.
“BMP Chairman viewed that negotiations need to focus on tariff elimination
across high potential exports, particularly those in which the exporter has
a comparative advantage”.
The Businessmen Panel also demanded for unilateral concessions from China
on different pakistani products.
