Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Negotiations between Pakistan and Iran on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) have failed to make any further progress as Iran hasn’t given the draft of Free Trade Framework agreement to Pakistan.

The reliable sources stated that officials of both the counties had earlier signed on the five year strategic trade cooperation plan during the Iranian President Hasan Rohani visit to Pakistan in March 2016 and it was decided to start negotiation on FTA on June 2016 but this not happened so far because of the lack of interest from the Iranian side. Both the counties have to share the draft of the free trade framework agreement with each other before starting the negotiating on this’ FTA sources added.

Pakistan side had already sent the draft of Framework agreement to Iranian side as according to signed MoU the officials of both the countries had decided to hold the joint working group meeting in June 2016 but the specific date has passed without meeting. However, Pakistan is expecting that joint working group meeting will be held in current month.

According to available documents, both the counties have agreed to give concession on the duty of 80 per cent items in Free Trade Agreement, presently Pakistan and Iran are enjoying concession on 18 per cent of items in the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). According to PTA, Pakistan has given the concession to Iran on 338 items and in reciprocal Iran has providing concession to 309 items to Pakistan. It is worth mention here that both the counties’ officials have agreed to complete the talks on FTA by December 2017. Presently, Pakistan and Iran mutual trade volume is 270 million dollar and with the implementation of FTA, it will be gone up to five billion dollar in five years.

Daily Times contacted with the Deputy Spokesperson and Joint Secretary Import and Export Muhammad Arshaf to ascertain the stance regarding the Delays in Pakistan-Iran FTA, He said that as per provision of MOU on five year strategic trade cooperation plan, draft text of FTA has been shared with the Iranian Side. They were required to convey their comments within one month, however two months have passed but their response is awaited.