ISLAMABAD – China has offered Pakistan yet another economic lifeline torescue the ally from the dollar dominated economic crunch.
China is said to have offered Islamabad the option of commencing trading inRenminbi (Yuan) in which regard meeting has been held with the State Bankof Pakistan (SBP).
According to sources privy of the development, the recommendation was putforth by the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing in a meeting withex-interim Minister for Commerce, Mian Misbah-ur-Rehman, reports *BusinessRecorder.*
In the meeting, several issues of economic cooperation and bilateralbetween the two countries were brought forth.
Also, China is mulling announcing unilateral trade concessions to Pakistanwhich will increase its exports to Beijing and hence decrease trade deficit.
The China-Pakistan free trade agreement (CPFTA) part 1 favoured China sincetheir exports to Pakistan were valued over $15 billion compared toPakistan’s exports of a meagre $1.5 billion in FY18.
And the last round of CPFTA talks held in Islamabad were unsuccessful asboth countries were unable to reach an agreement on the second phase.
Also, a high-level meeting presided under the chairman of ex-prime ministerShahid Khaqan Abbasi had taken the decision of not finalizing CPFTA part 2till the industry was taken aboard.
Furthermore, sources quoting the Chinese ambassador said Beijing wascontemplating to invite new Prime Minister Imran Khan as a guest of honourfor China Import Fair set to be held in November 2018.
To ensure this visit more purposeful, the Chinese ambassador stated a teamled by the Commerce Minister or the Secretary Commerce could visit Chinabefore the visit of new PM to find out areas of cooperation and firm up theaim of his visit.
In reply to the interim commerce minister’s worry on granting concessionsto India and Bangladesh, the ambassador said those had been proclaimedunder the framework of Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (Bangkok Agreement).
The Chinese ambassador added China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) wasaimed more on energy and infrastructure linked projects, but Beijingrecognized new areas of cooperation and support to Pakistan’s governmentvia trade promotion, foreign direct investment (FDI) and social sectorsupport.
For this, a delegation of Chinese Customs and Quarantine department wouldcome to Pakistan shortly to address concerns over market access andquarantine issue which were impeding trade between both countries.