Pakistan-Turkey sixth round of talks on FTA next week

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Turkey’s sixth round of the negotiations on the free trade agreement (FTA) would be held through digital video meeting next week, while the agreement would be signed in April.

Pakistan’s trade balance started decreasing at an annual rate of 19 percent after that additional duties imposed by Turkey in 2011, a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce said, while talking to APP on Friday.She said that Pakistan’s exports declined from $873 million in 2011 to $311 million in 2015 because of additional duties imposed by Turkey on its foreign imports on all countries, including Pakistan.

The official said that Pakistan’s major exports to Turkey are denim, PET, ethanol, cotton yarn fabric and rice, garments, leather, carpets, surgical instruments, sports goods and chemicals. Pakistan’s major imports from Turkey are manmade textiles, towels, steel structure, tanning and plastic, chemicals,  and processed milk, she added.

Additional tariff imposed by Turkey have a targeted impact on Pakistan’s major exports, she said, adding that Turkey levied additional duty on 1,880 products as same as Pakistan’s top 205 exports to turkey face additional duty.

Pakistan imposes regulatory duty on 1,312 products Turkey has exports to Pakistan in 261 of products that face regulatory duty. This constitutes 17 percent on Turkish imports into Pakistan, she said.

Before the imposition of the additional duty, Pakistan have positive trade balance with Turkey and after the signing of the new FTA with Turkey, the two countries will have the same positive trade balance.

Significant progress was made during the earlier negotiations on FTA between Pakistan and Turkey on all these agreements, the official added.