Iran for swiftly finalising FTA

Trade leader insists FTA will help remove import, export barriers

KARACHI:

A trade delegation of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, led by Morad Nemati, has underlined the great potential of increasing bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran.

“Although a preferential trade agreement exists between Iran and Pakistan, there should be a free trade agreement (FTA) to further improve the trade volume,” Nemati emphasised while talking to business leaders during his visit to Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

“The business community believes that the FTA has been pending for a long time that needs to be shaped up at the earliest to remove import and export barriers,” he remarked and called on the business community to push the government of Pakistan to expedite work on the FTA so that trade could grow substantially.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) President Zulfikar Thaver, while calling Iran a brotherly country, underscored the need for finalising the FTA, enhancing border trade and making a currency swap arrangement.

“We need FTA for purchase of chemical and petroleum products as oil supply on credit is the need of the hour,” Thaver said.

Pakistan and Iran on Monday signed 39 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to boost economic relations and cooperation in various fields such as transportation, tourism, fisheries, mines and minerals.

Both sides agreed that Zahidan Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture and Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry would jointly invest in developing the necessary infrastructure in the areas of customs, trade, transportation and aviation.

The MoUs are aimed at ramping up bilateral trade to $5 billion annually, opening an additional border crossing point at Kohak-Panjgur, raising the number of items in PTA and reducing tariffs. Efforts are already underway to reduce the import tariffs on fresh fruits.

“Despite excellent brotherly relations, the bilateral trade is below potential and it can be pushed to $5 billion per year,” KCCI Senior Vice President Touseef Ahmed stated.

He insisted that the FTA would take Pak-Iran trade to high levels and lead to deep financial and economic cooperation. “The existing barter trade basket also needs to be expanded to include more products to facilitate imports and exports and further strengthen economic integration.”

KCCI Vice President Haris Agar stressed the need for establishing banking channels, which would substantially raise the trade volume, as the business communities were unable to directly send and receive payments.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2023.

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