No restrictions: Pakistan eyes free trade deal with Singapore

Delegation to leave for talks later this month.


Irshad Ansari May 11, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


Pakistan has decided to enter into a free trade agreement (FTA) with Singapore to increase its exports and a high-level delegation will visit Singapore at the end of this month.


Sources told The Express Tribune that talks on FTA with Singapore were suspended after four rounds of earlier dialogue. Sources in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said that a summary had been received from the commerce ministry about FTA with Singapore, and it requested removing 80 per cent of tariff lines.

According to sources, the agreement will offer Pakistan a chance to come closer to the regional grouping of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), also providing the country an opportunity to supply manpower to Singapore, and thus bring foreign exchange into the country.

Singapore had already provided suggestions to Pakistan for an FTA. These propositions had been shared with stakeholders, but businesses, industrialists and others expressed their reservations about these propositions.

According to sources, stakeholders providing concessions on tariff lines to Singapore will turn the balance of trade against Pakistan, and this will increase the country’s trade deficit. They claimed that it will also have adverse effects on the local industry and in turn the economy.

Sources, however, added that if Pakistan taps into the service sector in Singapore, it will benefit the economy.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2011.

COMMENTS (2)

optimist | 12 years ago | Reply @ fahim you are just repeating commonly known stories. Its never too late and situation changes. Cheap imports are not just consumable items. If intelligently used, good machinery can be imported very cheaply to compete with foreign high quality products. We can import a few important machines that are being used in the factories around the world and even if we just use them to train our work force, our remittances can be multplied on a yearly basis as skilled labour always commands higher wages (and easier visas!!!) Recently, Pakistani businessmen got the opportunity to purchase plants from India to add value to rice exports. Eventually, we will be able to compete with even India to when it comes to Bran oil etc... Who asked us to only import cheap mobiles etc from China while we had a chance to import machinery and plants and start producing them at a cheaper rate (as copying is always easier!).
fahim | 12 years ago | Reply too little too late... there is nothing that pak has to offer singapore. The manufacturing/service sector of singapore is matured and already captured by chinese and indians both having flourishing free trade since many years and well established supply chain and govt relations. There is nothing that pak can offer singapore cheaper than china/india with its main exports (textile/leather/agri products). Singapore being a very small country has lower consumption and depends heavily on transit trade, with worlds largest and busiest ports. Goods from china/india that cannot be traded directly with pak, can be cheaply re-imported through singapore free trade route. Given our economy, infrastructure, power, water, ports, railways, airlines ... almost everything in shambles and tatters, any free trade agreement in near future will give more advantage to the other party and destroy us. Already Free trade with china has destroyed our small and medium industries with cheap mass imports making thousands jobless.
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