Pakistan, China to renegotiate free trade agreement benefits

Islamabad [Pakistan], March 11 (ANI): The Pakistani government has started drafting a renegotiation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)'s benefits with China as the trade results of 38 export items to China have not been encouraging.
Pakistan seeks more concessions exclusive to its products like rice to have more access to the market and also to increase its share in bilateral trade, Pakistani newspaper Daily Times reported on Thursday.
Pakistan started deliberations with China to renegotiate terms and tariff lines for the second phase of the FTA during Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent visit to China, according to Pakistan's Ministry of Commerce.
One of the major benefits of developing FTA with China was to have stronger bilateral economic ties and greater economic integration with a country with whom it is said to have an 'all-weather friendship'.
However, the trade gap between the two countries increased significantly and this widening trade deficit become a challenge for both countries.
A study conducted by the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) revealed that although 7,550 products (Eight Digit HS Code) were covered under FTA for Pakistan's export to China list, Pakistani exports were only concentrated in 350 product lines making it 4.6 per cent of the total concessional products.
While China exports 3800 products out of 6803 products, on which Pakistan even offered a concession, hence China utilized 55.87 per cent out of the total products.
Pakistan hopes that talks might be completed before the conclusion of the budgetary exercise for 2022-23.
Pakistan and China's relationship looks like Pakistan's over-dependency on China. Pakistan and China not only share FTA relations but also China is a huge lender to Pakistan. Pakistan also had one SAFE (China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange) deposit of USD 2.0 billion. (ANI)