Indonesia,Pakistan sign Preferential Trade Agreement

JAKARTA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's Trade Minister and Ambassador of Pakistan Sanaullah on Friday signed the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between both countries, a press statement from the Pakistani Embassy said here.

Wirjawan said that going beyond bilateral gains, stronger relations between Indonesia and Pakistan will allow both countries to benefit from overall market optimism of the Asian region.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Sanaullah stated that "both sides have agreed to provide market access by granting tariff concessions and removing non-tariff barriers and also help both countries to match the economic and trade relations to their true potential."

Under the PTA, Indonesia has agreed to offer market access to Pakistan on 216 tariff lines on preferential rate.

Indonesia offers a list includes the products of export interest of Pakistan such as fresh fruits, cotton yarn, cotton fabrics, ready-made garments, fans (ceiling, table, pedestal) sports goods (badminton and lawn tennis rackets), leather goods and other industrial products.

Pakistan's offer list to Indonesia under the agreement includes a total of 287 tariff lines for market access at preferential tariff.

This includes edible palm oil products (crude oil, palm stearin, RBD palm oil, palm olein, crude oil of palm kernel), sugar confectionery, cocoa product, HS 33, HS 34, consumer goods ( toothpaste, soap, deodorant), chemicals (polyacetals polycarbonates, sorbitol), tableware, kitchenware, rubber products, wood products, glassware products, and electronic products.

The Agreement shall enter into effect 30 days after the date on which the parties exchange written notifications for completion of their respective legal procedures.

According to Indonesian statistics, trade between Indonesia and Pakistan in 2010 amounted to 787.4 million U.S. dollars, with a declining trend of 2.33 percent for the past five years.

However, the trade performance showed a strong recovery in the period of January- November of 2011, booked the amount of 1.018 billion dollars and representing a 50.18 percent year-on-year growth.

Source: Xinhua