February 26, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 24, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The government is likely to initiate shortly dialogue on signing of a customs cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan.

An official source in the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) told Dawn on Tuesday that the government of Azerbaijan has sent a formal request to Pakistani government for having the agreement to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Under the proposed agreement, the official said that both countries would exchange information about customs procedures and tariff on various goods between the two countries.

They would also provide information in case of investigation of certain products for checking of dumping and under invoicing of those products.

The official said that it would also help the contracting states to minimize procedures at both entry and exist points to facilitate trade.

Official trade figures made available to Dawn showed that Pakistan trade balance achieved a positive growth by $0.743 million during the year 2001-02 to $0.786 million against $ 0.043 million over the corresponding year.

Further break-up showed that Pakistan exports to Azerbaijan stood at $0.788 million during the period under review against $0.857 million during the year 2000-01, showing a decline of 8 per cent.

Azerbaijan exports to Pakistan declined by more than 99 per cent to $0.002 million during the year 2001-02 against $0.814 million of last year.