- A grant of 400 million yuan also on the cards
ISLAMABAD: China is likely to give unilateral concessions to Pakistan on more than 300 tariff lines during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to China, it has been learnt.
Sources revealed that Pakistan had asked China to give unilateral concessions but the Chines officials were of the opinion that Pakistan first signs the Free Trade Agreement (FTA-II) with them before asking for concessions. However, sources confirmed that the prime minister has managed to convince his counterpart on the matter. If materialised, the agreement could jack up Pakistan’s exports to China by almost $1 billion.
Pakistan has sought unilateral concessions on almost all those items that came under the FTA-I, but have included meat in the list this time keeping in mind the future. Besides this, Pakistan will sign the FTA-II early next year as work in this regard has been completed, sources added.
Both the countries were struggling hard to finalise the FTA-II and held nine sessions in the last three years. The Pakistani business community in the recent past had highlighted their concerns regarding the singing of FTA-II.
Currently, mutual trade between the two countries was recorded at $16 billion of which Pakistan exported items worth $2 billion and imported items worth $14 billion.
It is pertinent to mention that both countries had signed an agreement (electronic data interchange) this year to share the figures in order to minimise the under-invoicing issue.
Sources said Pakistan would request China to roll over the repayments for three years, as China had given till April 2019 $2 billion to keep the reserves up. Pakistan is also optimistic to get 400 million yuan from China as grant, sources added.
According to sources, the incumbent secretary in few months has done a splendid job on FTA with China, adding that the secretary has presented a good case of Pakistan in front of Chinese authorities.
