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Friday March 29, 2024

Trade talks

November 08, 2018

This refers to the news report ‘Indonesia vows tariff concessions by November-end’ (November 7). It is pertinent to mention that the bilateral trade between Pakistan and Indonesia is heavily tilted in favour of Indonesia. On one hand, Pakistan has limited export surplus and a small range of products that it can offer for export to Indonesia while on the other hand it is importing a large number of items from Indonesia.

Even with the proposed tariff concessions, Pakistan’s export potential would not exceed $200 million owing to restricted export capacity. The point is that we should not enter into free trade agreements (FTA) and preferential trade agreements (PTA) with foreign countries when these do not help in expanding our exports.

Arif Majeed

Karachi