ISLAMABAD, May 18: Pakistan and China will hold the fourth round in September next to finalise the draft text of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

An official announcement issued here on Thursday said that the draft text of various chapters of the bilateral FTA was discussed for the first time in the third round of negotiations.

The talks were held in an atmosphere of complete understanding and major progress was achieved in clearing the draft text and a consensus was achieved on the substantive part of the text.

The coverage of items for elimination of duty bilaterally was also discussed in the talks. The discussions on this aspect of the agreement would continue in September 2006, when the next round of talks is likely to be held at Beijing.

The announcement said the ministry of commerce will initiate the consultation process with the stakeholders after the announcement of the federal budget next month.

“July and August 2006 will be the time for these consultations when the budget and the changes in the Pakistan tariff are approved by the Parliament,” the announcement added.

The first two rounds of these negotiations were held prior to January, 2006 and were mostly related to put in place the Early Harvest Programme (EHP) — zero rate of duty — which was negotiated during 2005. The EHP was implemented smoothly on January 1, 2006.