ISLAMABAD – In a positive development, China offers big concessions toPakistan over $8.7 billion exports.

The Ministry of Commerce has announced that the protocol to amend theChina-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) is in effect from December 1,2019.

In pursuance of the notification, the Ministry of Commerce has announcedthat the tariff concessions under Phase-II of the CPFTA will be implementedbetween the governments of Pakistan and China from 1st January 2020.

As per the agreement, the CPFTA-II will immediately eliminate the tariff on313 tariff lines of Pakistan’s export interest, giving the same treatmentto Pakistan’s exports as other countries of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN).

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries, and Productionand Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood announced the agreement on Twitter.

These 313 tariff lines cover over $8.7 billion worth of Pakistan’s globalexport and $64 billion of Chinese global imports. This will result in 75percent of total trade liberalization for Pakistan in terms of tariff linesand 92 percent in terms of trade volume.

The duty exemptions are not limited to textile goods. They also includeleather, engineering, chemicals, furniture, auto parts, plastic, rubber,paper board, ceramic, glass, surgical instruments, footwear, wood, articlesof stones, seafood, meat, tractors, home appliances, etc.

Under the agreement, Pakistan will reduce the duty to zero on 75% of totaltariff lines in 15 years, while China will do the same in 10 years. Duringthis period, China will bring down the duty to zero percent on around2,000-2,500 tariff lines for Pakistan.