Value of trade in Pakistani Rupees made by Pakistan with the different Countries during the last five years
Meanwhile, the Minister for Commerce and Textile told the Senate in a written reply to a question by Senator Najma Hameed that Pakistan’s exports to Turkey grew at good pace and crossed US$ 850 million in 2011. However, it started to decline after the imposition of additional duties by Turkey in August 2011 and amounted to US$ 323 million in 2017.
The minister told that Pakistan has engaged Turkey for a preferential market access arrangement to increase bilateral trade and both countries announced to initiate talks on Pak-Turkey Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in High Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HL SCC) meeting in February, 2015 in Islamabad. The FTA will also help address market access issues due to imposition of additional duties by Turkey.
The Senate was told that so far seven rounds of negotiations have been held and the 7th round of talks on FTA was held in Ankara on June 5-6, 2017.
It was told that the Ministry of Commerce is in the process of building consensus with Turkish counterparts and other stakeholder to have a meaningful FTA that increases economic integration and corroborates with the close political and cultural relations that both Countries have.
