First Meeting of China-Pakistan Free Trade Committee was held in Beijing on September 10. Assistant Commerce Minister Wang Chao attended the opening ceremony, and co-announced with Pakistani Secretary (Deputy Minister) of Commerce Suleman Ghani that China-Pakistan FTA on Trade in Services will come into force on Oct. 10, which means that China and Pakistan have established a comprehensive free trade area covering goods trade, service trade, and investment.
At the meeting, the two sides reviewed, under the framework of China-Pakistan FTA (mainly covering goods trade and investment & cooperation) since its implementation in July 2007, the two-way trade and investment development, implementation of tax reduction, utilization of preferential agreement articles, trade statistics, rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers of trade, etc.; and exchanged in-depth views on further publicizing and implementing the agreement, strengthening two-way investment and economic cooperation, and promoting the mutual recognition of doctor and nurse qualification. The meeting completed successfully.
Since the implementation of China-Pakistan FTA, the trade investment and economic cooperation between the two sides have been developing fast. Bilateral trade in 2007 reached $6.5 billion, of which US $5.4 billion are China’s export, and US $1.1 billion are China’s import, up by 25%, 28% and 10% respectively. In spite of the influence of the international financial crisis, the bilateral trade in 2008 still amounted to $7 billion, in which China’s export accounting for US $6 billion, and import US $1 billion, up by 13%, 15% and down by 0.3% respectively. Bilateral trade in the first half of 2009 amounted to $3.1 billion, in which China’s export accounting for $2.6 billion, and import $0.5 billion, down by 13%, 15% and 0.3% respectively. Thanks to China-Pakistan FTA, China-Pakistan bilateral trade is obviously better than their respective trade with the world and with the majority countries. At present, China has become the fourth largest trading partner of Pakistan.
China-Pakistan FTA on Trade in Services was signed in February this year. According to the agreement, based on the two countries’ commitment to WTO, among the 12 main service sectors, Pakistani 102 sub-sectors of 11 service sectors, and Chinese 28 sub-sectors of 6 service sectors will open to each other. At present, the said agreement is the most open and comprehensive FTA on service trade ever for the two countries. After its implementation on October 10, the China-Pakistan FTA on Trade in Services is expected to play a positive role, together with the China-Pakistan FTA, in coping with international financial crisis, boosting economic development, and strengthening over-all China-Pakistan friendship. For more information about the progress of the establishment of Chinese free trade areas and detailed information of the above said agreement, you can visit the China FTA Network (fta.mofcom.gov.cn).
