The much-awaited deal among D-8 countries for implementing the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) from July 1, 2016 was termed a highly positive development by Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Atif Ikram Sheikh, Senior Vice President Pervez Ahmed and Vice President Abdul Waheed.
The officials said D-8 countries have huge potential to enhance cooperation in many areas and promote intra-trade as they have a combined population of about 1 billion people with a combined national income of about $3.7 trillion. “However, these countries were conducting only 7% of their total international trade among themselves which is not encouraging,” added the statement. “The volume of current trade among D-8 countries is around $120 billion and we hope that the implementation of PTA would pave the way for the figure to reach $500 billion by 2018, as pledged by these countries.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2016.
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