KARACHI: Government of Pakistan has revised the schedule of taxation/duty on imports from China under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), wherein just one duty/tax slab has been fixed ranging zero percent to 20 percent.
The government issued SRO 570(I)/2017, which has amended the SRO No.659(I)/2007 and replaced the schedules of importable goods under FTA and subsequent incidence of customs duty.
The China–Pakistan Free Trade Agreement is a major free trade agreement signed between the People’s Republic of China and Pakistan. It was concluded in 2006 and entered into effect in July 2007.
Trade volume due to agreement between the two states was $13 billion in 2013, and reached to $20 billion by 2015 when both countries signed 51 agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in different fields.
China had been contributing significantly to Pakistan’s imports even before the FTA was signed and has seen considerable improvement in its ranking after the FTA was implemented in 2007. By 2012, it was the source for 15 percent of Pakistan’s overall imports from the world as compared to 9.8 percent in 2006.