In a major development, Pakistan and China have agreed to start electronic data sharing before the end of this year to deal with the under-invoicing and mis-declaration of traded goods.
This agreement was reached at the meeting of second phase negotiations on the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) on Wednesday. The three days talks are led by Yao Wenling, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Commerce of China and Robina Athar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce. The two sides continued discussion on Tariff Reduction Modality (TRM) for the second phase of CPFTA.
Pakistan reiterated its stance that the second phase of CPFTA should be based on the principle of less than equal reciprocity in favour of Pakistan which entails that China would give tariff concessions to Pakistan which it has given to its other FTA trading partners while Pakistan may be allowed an adequate time period for reasonable reduction of tariffs keeping in view the prevalent conditions of Pakistani domestic industry.
The Chinese side shared a preliminary list of sectors and sub-sectors for trade in services for evaluation of Pakistani side. China wants enhanced cooperation in the services sectors which include architectural services, engineering, medical and dental services, advertising, courier services, tourism and travel, recreational, cultural and sporting services. This proposed liberalization in different services sectors would eventually allow a robust and dynamic growth in trade in services between the two countries.
Both the sides expressed satisfaction over the progress made by the working group of customs officials dealing with Electronic Data Interchange related issues. It was decided that the electronic data sharing systems would be put in place on both sides before the end of this year which would help to deal with under-invoicing and mis-declaration.
Matters regarding sanitary and phyto-sanitary and technical barriers to trade were also discussed. Both sides agreed that SPS regulatory and monitoring authorities of both countries would work more closely. This close cooperation between them would effectively help export of rice, mango, rape-seed, canola and cherries to China in near future.
