KCCI former president Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan has said that business groups, who believed that Pakistan negotiated the CPFTA-I poorly, both in terms of getting access for its products and granting access to Chinese goods, blamed it for contributing to premature deindustrialization. In CPFTA-I, there were no safeguard measures for industries, no synergy between relevant institutions, impact on balance of payments was not incorporated and no data exchange policy was agreed to counter under-invoicing issues. However, the signing of CPFTA-II is a significant milestone in the economic and trade relations between the two countries. BMG General Secretary AQ Khalil has said that CPFTA-II provides details of tariffs levied by China on 8,238 product lines. He said that CPFTA-II will significantly improve Pakistani exporters’ access to the $ 2Tn Chinese import market and thus help address the country’s trade deficit.
5/10/2020