ISLAMABAD – The National Assembly was told on Wednesday that phase two offree trade agreement between Pakistan and China was likely to come intoeffect from January 1, 2020 eliminating duty on Pakistan’s 313 exportableitems.
Parliamentary Secretary for Textile Aliya Hamza during Question House toldin a written reply that the second phase of the free trade agreement wasconcluded on April 9, 2019 after 11 rounds of rigorous negotiations.
A protocol to this effect was signed by both sides during the visit ofPrime Minister Imran Khan to China on April 28, 2019.
In phase two, China had offered favorable concessions to Pakistan includingimmediate elimination of duty on 313 tariff lines of Pakistan’s primeexport interest. Pakistan’s protected list of items had increased from 10percent to 25 percent or 1760 tariff lines.
Under the agreement, Electronic Data Exchange System would be implementedto curb under invoicing and misdeclaration.
To a question of MNA Syed Hussain Tariq, she said phase one was notsuitable for Pakistan as there were no tariff lines with zero duty.
Aliya Hamza said the government had not taken loans to stabilize the dollarrate and now its value was market driven.
The exports were rising and according to the latest quarter, exports hadincreased by four percent while on month to month basis these rose by 14percent. The current account deficit had decreased by 75 percent, sheinformed.
To another question fielded by Shazia Marri, she told that the PrimeMinister had approved the key performance indicators to monitor andevaluate the performance of the trade and investment officers in Pakistan’smissions abroad.
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A committee notified by the Commerce Division was periodically evaluatingthe performance of the trade officers on the basis of these performanceindicators.
She said seven trade officers from countries including Canada, Argentina,Japan, China, Brazil and United Kingdom were recalled during 2018-19 due totheir below average performance on therecommendations of the evaluation committee. There were a total of 57 tradeofficer posts and 41 of them would be filled through interviews and tests.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan informed theHouse that Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) had undertakenactivities for welfare of citizens in the areas of Karachi where nuclearpower plants K-2 and K-3 were still under construction. He told the welfareactivities include healthcare and a mobile dispensary that visit ruralareas once every week. Facilities of education and drinking water were alsobeing provided. Once the plants K-2 and K-3 would become operational,sufficient funds would be reserved from their revenue stream for uplift ofthe residents of the areas, he added.
Earlier, Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri took oath from the newly electedMember National Assembly Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti.
Shahzain Bugti was re-elected from the constituency in Dera Bugti,Balochistan after he was deseated due to verdict of an election tribunal.
The Deputy Speaker also announced the panel of chairpersons includingFakhar Imam, Samiul Hassan Gilani, Bashir Virk, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah,Iqbal Muhammad Khan and Munaza Hassan for chairing session of the assemblyin absence of Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Earlier, prayer was offered for citizens who lost their lives in differentincidents in the country.
