Federal Minister for Commerce, Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan said this while chairing a briefing on Pak-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement. He said that the Pakistani exporters must focus on the Malaysian Market.
The honorable minister said that though all major and principal Pakistani export products such as Textile, Surgical and Leather enjoy Zero Tariff rates but still this market is being ignored by Pakistani exporters. “The commerce ministry is working on the FTA with Malaysia to take more concessions for Pakistani exporters and for including more and more items in the FTA but the principal export items already enjoys full market access in Malaysia and the need is to take maximum advantage out of it”, added the Minister.
The comprehensive Free Trade Agreement for Closer Economic Partnership between Malaysia and Pakistan (MPCEPA) was signed on 8th November, 2007 at KualaLampur, Malaysia and became operational on 1st January, 2008. The Agreement covers Goods, Services and Investment.
Minister was informed that Pakistan has offered tariff concessions to Malaysia in 6083 tariff lines while Malaysia has offered concession to Pakistan on 10576 tariff lines and out of the total, 74% (7914 TL) enjoy “zero” duty which includes most of the principal export items of Pakistan.
Under the Agreement, a Joint Review Committee has been established to monitor progress of the agreement and till now, three meetings of Joint Review Committee (JRC) have been held. During the 2nd meeting, both sides agreed to adopt amendments in Chapter 3 on Rules of Origin (ROO), and its corresponding Annexes 3 and 4 of MPCEPA. During the 3rd Session JTC held on 27th - 28th September, 2016, in Kuala Lumpur, both sides agreed that initially the expansion will take place in form of Early Harvest Program, which envisages further immediate concessions on 10 items. It was further agreed that both parties shall accord concessions to items of export interest at par with other FTA partners.
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