ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has proposed signing of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) leading to a free trade agreement (FTA) with Afghanistan in near future to increase the volume of bilateral trade.

The minister made this proposal in a meeting with Afghan Finance Minister Dr Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi here on Friday. Both the sides agreed to enhance the present level of economic and trade cooperation.

Mr Khan stressed that both the countries should form a group to study each other's tariff regimes as well as complementaries of the two economies so that businessmen of the two countries might be able to make informed business decisions.

He informed the Afghan minister that a high-level delegation, comprising commerce secretary and CBR chairman, would soon visit Afghanistan to discuss various trade issues, including six remaining items in the negative list of Afghan transit trade.

The commerce minister said that Pakistan was interested in setting up industrial zones between Kandahar and Jalalabad once the security issues were resolved in Afghanistan.

Dr Ahadi said that Pakistan was a major trade partner of Afghanistan and his country gave much importance to the valuable assistance of Pakistan in rebuilding Afghanistan.

He acknowledged tremendous potential for trade yet to be realized between the two countries. "Our trade volume is rapidly rising and much is to be done to further increase this volume", he added.