KARACHI, March 25: The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan have agreed to categorise Pakistani products to capture maximum share in Chinese and Malaysian markets.

At a seminar on “exploring Pakistan’s export potential to Malaysia and China,” jointly organised by the KCCI and TDAP, on Tuesday, Mujeeb Ahmed Khan, head of TDAP’s WTO cell said that the indicated export potential for Pakistan in Chinese market was about five billion dollars which could be tapped by identifying or categorising items.

Under the free trade agreement with China, which came into effect Jan 1, 2008, and which would to be completed by 2012, a bulk of products between the two countries would be traded at zero-rated tariff.

“We have to study what range of products we should import from China and export to the same for the mutual benefit ,” the TDAP official said.

He said China had more than 10,000 items to trade with Pakistan whereas Malaysia has around 6,000 products to bring on the board. By 2012, a majority of the items would be at zero tariff, he said.

He said Malaysia has indicated a potential of $1.8 billion as traditional items.

To KCCI comments that the TDAP lacked updated data-base on trade and the future prospects, he said that the TDAP’s WTO cell was linked to the European Union and other international customs organisations. “We require at least 12 months to determine the status of exports and imports of the country,” he said.

KCCI President Shamim Ahmed Shamsi said that the chamber through its member businessmen / trade associations would gather all possible trade data for consumption of policy-makers and institutions involved in promotion of trade and investment.

The KCCI has already developed a strong network for database, he said. He also spoke about problems facing the Pakistani businessmen in doing business with various countries.

—APP