ISLAMABAD, April 20: Pakistan has proposed to start negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with Mercosur, a customs union among four Latin American countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. The formal request for FTA was made in a meeting of Pakistani delegation led by Minister of State for Commerce, Hamid Yar Hiraj comprising Secretary Commerce Tasneem Noorani, Ambassador of Pakistan to Brazil, Khalid Khattak with Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently. At present, Paraguay holds Presidency of Mercosur.

The current imports of Mercosur countries are more than $60 billion. An official announcement issued by commerce ministry here on Wednesday said during bilateral discussions, the Mercosur authorities assured Pakistan that they would seriously consider their request for negotiating an FTA with Mercosur in its May meeting.

They informed Pakistani delegation that the request of preferential trading would be formally communicated to all members and positive decision was likely to be taken in the meeting of Mercosur Common Market Group to be held at Asuncion, Paraguay in May next this year.

During the meetings, the secretary commerce briefed the Paraguayan ministers on the proactive role being played by the government of Pakistan in seeking market access through FTAs with a number of countries including China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Safta, etc.

He informed the government of Paraguay that Pakistan had negotiated a duty free access within 18 months for the textiles with China. The Mercosur authorities showed a lot of interest in Pakistan’s market access strategy.

Mercosur authorities invited a Pakistani trade delegation to attend the Businessmen Forum at Mercosur Common Market Meeting scheduled to be held in Asuncion, Paraguay in June for better business-to-business contacts.

Both the Ministers of Paraguay assured the Pakistani delegation that they looked at doing trade with Pakistan very positively and felt that it could be to the benefit of both parties, if the negotiations were held with full commitment.