China’s FTA talks with Pakistan completed

BEIJING—China and Pakistan have agreed on market access and basically wrapped up negotiations on a free trade agreement, sources with China’s Ministry of Commerce said here on Monday.
The two sides have conducted five rounds of negotiations since last April and the latest one wrapped up in Beijing on Friday. The announcement came ahead of a state visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to neighboring Pakistan, whose trade with China grew 39 percent year-on-year to hit 4.26 billion US dollars last year.
This month, Hu will also visit Vietnam, Laos and India, where talks on another potential free trade partnership will be held, and attend the 14th Economic Leaders Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Hanoi from Nov. 17 to 19. Chinese authorities have expressed their willingness to discuss with Japan the establishment of free trade area after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed the idea on Nov. 3.
The past five years have seen China establish free trade areas (FTA) with various trade partners. The world’s fourth largest economy has been talking with 27 countries and regions about the establishment of nine FTAs, covering a quarter of China’s total trade, according to sources with the Ministry of Commerce. Last year China signed an FTA cargo trade agreement with Chile and started an all-round tariff reduction process with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The mainland, meanwhile, implemented a Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with Hong Kong and Macao. China is also holding FTA talks with Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Gulf countries.
Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai said free trade areas were necessary to the economic and trade development of China and its partners. “China hopes all these negotiations will achieve substantial progress and lead to free trade agreements as early as possible,” Cui said. The Sino-Pakistan FTA talks started last April in Islamabad after Premier Wen Jiabao and Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Azizsigned “early harvest” FTA, under which China would impose agreed tariff rates on 2,244 categories of products originating from Pakistan.—Agencies