Preferential trade with Turkiye activated

Almost after seven years, Pakistan and Turkiye have implemented a preferential trade agreement to boost bilateral trade volume across various sectors. Both sides notified duty reductions on mutually agreed tariff lines with effect from May 1, an official announcement of the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Islamabad and Istanbul signed the “Trade in Goods Agreement” in August 2016. Under the agreement, Pakistan has gained preferential access to the Turkish market under 261 tariff lines covering traditional as well as non-traditional sectors such as leather, rice, dates, mangoes, cutlery, sports goods, seafood, processed agricultural products, rubber tubes and tyres, plastics, and engineering goods. Pakistan’s export value of these tariff lines stands at $5.1 billion or 16 per cent of the total exports, while Turkish global imports in these products amount to $7.6bn.