ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Pakistan and Thailand will hold second round of study group meeting in February next to pave the way for initiation of talks on the early harvest programme (EHP)leading to zero rate of duty.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that the meeting of the study group was expected to be held in the first week of February in Bangkok to discuss the modalities and procedures of the framework agreement.

The first meeting of the study group was held in Islamabad on November 24, 2005. Both sides had already nominated one person each for the study group. Thailand nominated an academic whereas Pakistan nominated a government official in August-September.

The official said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his recent visit to Thailand requested his counterpart for initiation of early negotiations on EHP to increase the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries.

The study group, the official said’ would deliberate on various issues including trade regimes, tariff and non-tariff measures. The study group would also analyse and discuss bilateral trade statistics and global trade trends, identify complementarities, with special focus on agriculture, textiles, food preparations, fisheries, sports and surgical goods.

The group would also discuss outline of the framework agreement to be concluded. In future meetings, cooperation in the field of services and investments would also be discussed.

The official said that in the EHP Pakistan would seek immediate cut in duties on export of vegetables, fruits, fisheries and horticulture products to Thailand.

The official ruled out the impression that Thailand has imposed a ban on import of fruits and vegetables from Pakistan. However, he added that Pakistani fruits and vegetables would have to meet the requirements of sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures enforced by Thailand.

Among the fruits, he said that there was a greater demand for mangoes, melon, apple, kinno and citrus etc in Thailand market. All these kinds of Pakistani fruits can easily compete with those currently coming from various countries.

Pakistan export of fisheries products could also grab market in the Thailand because of the huge consumption of seafood in that country, the official said adding that the local fish production there was not sufficient to meet the domestic consumption.

The two countries could also exchange expertise in many areas including tourism sector. Pakistan could provide better facilities to Thai visitors visiting historical places of Buddhism in Taxila, Takhtbhai, Swat and Peshawar.

Pakistan would also have to take up the issue of visa with Thai authorities. Interestingly, Thailand provide the facility of granting visas on arrival at airport to the nationals of many countries even India but the same was denied to Pakistan.