October 18, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 24, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Oct 17: Pakistan and China will sign the free trade agreement (FTA) during the upcoming visit of Chinese President Hue Jintao to Pakistan in November.

A senior official told Dawn on Tuesday that the understanding had been reached during the recent meeting of technical delegation of the two sides in Beijing.

According to the official, the two sides reached at an agreement in the areas of investment and services sector to be part of the agreement. However, some areas under merchandise trade remain unresolved.

The official said that it was expected that a technical-level meeting would be held ahead of the Chinese president’s visit to Islamabad to sort out the issues. “Even if an understanding was not reached in these areas, the FTA would be signed, but it would be implemented in a period of four to five months for resolving the remaining issues,” the official added.

This will be Pakistan’s first comprehensive FTA with any country. However, Pakistan had a first operational FTA with Sri Lanka, which only deals with trade in goods.

Over the past few years, China-Pakistan economic and trade relations developed quickly. In 2005, bilateral trade reached $4.26 billion, up by 39 per cent over 2004. Trade between China and Pakistan amounted to $1.018 billion in January to March this year, up by 42.3 per cent over the same period last year.