Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday urged the member states to ensure effective implementation of the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA) to help strengthen regional security and economic prosperity through mutually beneficial intra-regional trade.
"However, It is a matter of great concern that the ECO region, comprising an area of 8 million square kilometers and half a billion population - roughly 15% of the World population, has intra-regional trade of, unfortunately, less than 8% of region's aggregate, and only about 2 % in global trade, which is in stark contrast to other regional groupings such as the EU where the intra-regional trade stands above 70%, and the ASEAN, where it is around 23%," the deputy prime minister said addressing the 28th Meeting of ECO Council of Ministers (COM) in Mashhad.
He said the ECOTA was a landmark intra-regional preferential trade agreement, which was conceptualized exactly in line with the founding and fundamental goals of the organization.
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