Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan on Tuesday said that Pakistani exporters must focus on Malaysian market.

The minister expressed these views while chairing a briefing on Pak-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). He said that although all major and principal Pakistani export products, such as textiles, surgical instruments and leather products enjoyed zero tariff rates, this market was being ignored by Pakistani exporters. “The Commerce Ministry is working on the FTA with Malaysia to take more concessions for Pakistani exporters and for including more and more items in the FTA, but the principal export items already enjoys full market access in Malaysia and the need is to take maximum advantage [of the accord],” added the minister.

The comprehensive Free Trade Agreement for Closer Economic Partnership between Malaysia and Pakistan (MPCEPA) was signed on November 8, 2007 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and became operational on January 1, 2008. The agreement covers goods, services and investment. The minister was informed that Pakistan had offered tariff concessions to Malaysia in 6,083 tariff lines, while Malaysia offered concession to Pakistan on 10,576 tariff lines, and out of the total, 74% (7,914 TL) enjoy “zero” duty, which includes most of the principal export items of Pakistan. Under the agreement, a joint review committee had been established to monitor progress of the agreement, and till now, three meetings of the committee have been held. During the 2nd meeting, both sides agreed to adopt amendments to Chapter 3 on Rules of Origin (ROO), and its corresponding Annexes 3 and 4 of MPCEPA. During the 3rd Session of the JTC held on September 27-28, 2016, in Kuala Lumpur, both sides agreed that initially the expansion would take place in the form of Early Harvest Programme, which envisages further immediate concessions on 10 items. It was further agreed that both parties would accord concessions to items of export interest at par with other FTA partners.