Daily Times

The Coordinator to Federal Tax Ombudsman Meher Kashif Younis Sunday urged Pak exporters to fully exploit the freshly fruitful opportunities of preferential trade with Turkiye to boost bilateral trade volume across various sectors.

Speaking at a seminar on “Benefits of Preferential Trade Agreement between Turkiye and Pakistan” held here today under the aegis of Gold Ring Economic Fourm, a strategic think tank, he stressed the need to increase business-to-business interaction for strengthening trade and investment relations between the two Muslim brotherly countries.

He said the agreement signifies a notable milestone in the historic brotherly relations between Pakistan and Türkiye and envisages further integration of the markets and business communities of both countries.

He said the total trade between Pakistan and Turkiye stood at $883 million in the fiscal year 2021-22 with Pakistan’s exports to Turkiye amounting to $366m and Pakistan’s imports from that country amounting to $517m. The balance of trade is in favour of Turkiye with a negative trade balance of $151m in 2021-22, he added. He said this agreement will open new export opportunities.

He said In the second phase, Turkiye will reduce the duty to zero per cent on 92 tariff lines during a period between five and 10 years. Pakistan’s export value of these products is $1.608bn, while Turkish global imports stand at $2.084bn and duty will be exempted on certain items.

He said under the agreement, Pakistan has gained preferential access to the Turkish market under 261 tariff lines covering traditional as well as non-traditional sectors such as leather, rice, dates, mangoes, cutlery, sports goods, seafood, processed agricultural products, rubber tubes and tires, plastics, and engineering goods. He said Pakistan’s export value of these tariff lines stands at $5.1 billion or 16 per cent of the total exports, while Turkish global imports in these products amount to $7.6bn.

Meher Kashif Younis said either side inked an agreement for duty reduction on mutually agreed tariff lines with effect from May 1. He said Turkiye has offered a margin of preferences and tariff rate quota on agriculture products to Pakistan.

The categories of products that will get benefit from the concessions are leather, footwear, glass and ceramics, articles of base metal, plastics and rubber, furniture, mattresses, lamps, sports and engineering goods, chemicals and cosmetics, agriculture products, and processed agriculture. He said in return Pakistan will reduce to zero per cent in five to 10 years on 16 tariff lines. Turkish global exports of these tariff lines stand at $2.123bn, while Pakistan’s imports of these products are $684m.