BEIJING, Aug 16: Pakistan and China on Tuesday completed first round of negotiations on Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with a pledge to make it an effective document, giving boost to their bilateral trade and establishing mutually beneficial cooperative partnership.

The negotiations took place on August 15 and 16, at Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang region. Pakistan side was represented by a seven-member delegation led by Shahid Bashir, senior official of Ministry of Commerce, while Assistant Minister Yi Xiaochun led the Chinese side.

“We discussed a roadmap to finalize the agreement and make it operational in three phases, starting from January, 2006,” said Shahid Mahmood, Pakistan Commercial Counsellor in Beijing.

He told APP that the two sides discussed modalities and their respective proposals regarding the free trade arrangement. It is hoped that the negotiation process will be completed within a period of one year.

The officials of the two sides also worked out Rules of Origin, which are essential for operationalizing the Early Harvest Programme (EHP) that was concluded and signed following the talks held in Islamabad in April this year between Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. It was agreed that the rules would be finalized by the end of next month.—APP