Pakistan is hopeful of exports growth worth $3.2 billion in case just 5 per cent of the free market access offered by China to 313 high-priority tariff lines of Pakistan is realised under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA-II) that went into force on January 1, according to the former’s ministry of commerce. M Hamid Ali, joint secretary, foreign trade-1, in the ministry recently told a seminar that CPFTA-II has greatly secured Pakistan’s export interest as around 83 per cent of the country’s global exports have been liberalised in the agreement’s second phase as against 41 per cent under phase-I. Similarly, 91 per cent of Pakistan’s exports to China have been liberalised in phase-II as against 30 per cent liberalised in phase-I. This liberalisation covers 88.3 per cent of China’s global imports or $1.6 trillion, according to Pakistani media reports. The sensitive list has been enhanced from 1,410 in CPFTA-I to 1,760 in CPFTA-II after thorough consultation with stakeholders. Provisions have been introduced to address the balance of payment (BoP) difficulties, Ali said. Effective enforcement of electronic data exchange will also ensure sharing of the real time trade data to discourage under invoicing and misreporting. Safeguard measures have been introduced to temporarily restrict imports of products that harm the domestic industry.
