ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to remove two items from the concessional list and to rationalize duty on two other items under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

A senior official told Dawn that the understanding to this effect was reached between the senior officials of the two countries in a recent meeting held in Colombo. The Sri Lankan side agreed to Pakistan’s proposal to include PVC resin and auto parts tariff lines in the negative list but it wanted to retain cycles in the concessional list.

The official said that Sri Lanka side also agreed to give market access on steel pipes at zero-rate and transfer this year’s rice quota of 6,000 tons to next year. The official, however, said that the Sri Lankan side requested for further rationalization of the tariff reduce quota (TRQ) on betel leaves, which was yet to be decided.