PHASE two of the much-touted China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement has come into effect which will allow Pakistani manufacturers and traders to export around 313 new products to the Chinese market with zero duties.
Pakistan already enjoys zero duties on exports of 724 products to China under the first free trade pact signed between the two countries in 2006. After implementation of the second pact, Pakistan has been allowed to export more than 1000 products to China with zero duties. The new facility will particularly benefit the agriculture, leather and confectionery items. China has once again proved to be a true friend of Pakistan as it listened to and addressed the concerns of Pakistani side in the second phase of FTA by further expanding zero rated market access for Pakistani products. This will greatly help Pakistan reduce its trade imbalance with the friendly country. This is a great milestone for both the neighbouring countries and this will give further impetus to promote and strengthen economic relations between the two countries. It is now up to us as to how much we take benefit from this opportunity opened by China. Firstly, we need to organize exhibitions of different products in different cities of China to apprise the people there about the quality products being produced by Pakistanis. Then, we need to enhance productivity of our industrial sector to meet the demand of products in the world’s most populated country. For this, the government should fully facilitate the industrial sector. Besides ensuring round the clock gas and power supplies to the industrial sector, the sector should be provided incentives to expand their base. It is only through bringing value addition and diversifying our export basket, we can steer the country out of economic challenges. In recent years, China has emerged as a tech giant and our private sector should enhance engagements with the Chinese companies in order to bring the much needed innovation and technology to revive our industrial sector and bolster productivity of both the industrial and agriculture sectors.
