October 18, 2002	Friday	Sha'aban 11, 1423

KARACHI, Oct 17: The Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood said on Thursday that Pakistan would sign the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Sri Lanka on October 24, and it would become effective within 30 days of the signing.

Talking to newsmen after his meeting with representatives of various local industries, at head office of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) here, the Commerce Minister said he was holding meetings with the stakeholder before going to Sri Lanka to listen to their points of view. He said both the countries would benefit from the FTA.

He said that the agreement would be divided into three categories: items with no duty, items with partial duty and items with phasing-out duty.

The Commerce Minister said that he held talks with the representatives of engineering, automobiles, air-conditioners, refrigerators, ceramics, textiles, fruits and vegetable and received their suggestions on every item.

He said that many industries have certain objections, which would be settled down before finalizing the agreement.

Earlier, addressing the representatives of the automobile, refrigerators, air-conditioners industries, the commerce minister pointed out that Sri Lanka government has allowed free import of components or parts of the products as they encourage establishment of industries in their country.

The Sri Lanka has a vision to make the country like Singapore, he said adding that they have offered Pakistani industries to set up their units at a separate industrial zone. For this purpose, he said they have offered to provide a separate piece of the land.

Moreover, the Commerce Minister said that the Sri Lanka has agreed, in principle, to provide the duty free market access to all those products, which are enjoying duty free status with India.

In this regard about 24 items have already been identified, he added.

Razak said that Pakistani industries can set up assembly plants or enter into joint ventures with some Sri Lankan companies to set up industries there.

He said Sri Lanka has allowed duty-free import of rickshaws only. Whereas for other automobiles, and refrigerator, air-conditioners, bicycles only components or CKD (completely knocked down) kits would be allowed.

The representatives of the industries underlined the need that Pakistan should ask to Sri Lanka to allow CBU (completely built units) for initial one or two years to introduce Pakistani brand names in the Sri Lankan market.

The Commerce Secretary Mirza Qamar Baig also attended the meeting.—APP

Our reporter from Islamabad adds: Pakistan is expected to finalize the “no concession lists” of items with Sri Lanka later this month before signing the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), aiming to provide protection to local industries, a senior official told Dawn.

Under the agreement, it is expected that Pakistan would not provide concession on around 400 plus items to Sri Lanka, while Pakistan would not receive concession in import duty on 600 plus items from Sri Lanka.

The disparity between the two countries in terms of items on “no concession and request lists” has been narrowed down, claimed the official.

Explaining the delay in signing of FTA with Sri Lank, the official said that import duty on some of the items had already been reduced in the budgets of the two countries, which were earlier demanded for concession.

Due to these changes made in the budget, the official said “we replaced these items with fresh ones for concession in import duty by both the countries, which were renegotiated.”

Similarly, following the introduction of harmonised system nomenclature in the budget 2002, the HS code of a number of items have been changed, resulting in changes in the HS code of those items which were agreed in the concession lists by both the countries.

The officials said that in light of these changes, fresh lists were prepared and re-negotiated which were to be finalized during the forthcoming meeting.

Recently, Sri Lanka has reviewed its FTA with the India and gave more concession on items to the country, the official said and added that in the light of this during the meeting “we would also demand concession from Sri Lanka on the items on which concession has been given to India.”

To finalize the lists, the official said that Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood is scheduled to leave for Colombo on October 22, to sort out the pending issues with the Sri Lankan trade authorities. He would lead a delegation of senior officials and representatives from the private sector.

The official said: “We have already exchanged fresh list of items on which concession would be given by both the countries to traders and hoping it would be finalized before the start of negotiations.”