ISLAMABAD: The trade between Pakistan and Central Asia Republics (CARs) has increased in the first quarter of the current Financial Year 2023-24, as compared to last year 2022-23 in the corresponding period, which will further strengthen regional integration.
The trade between regional countries, including Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan with Pakistan has reached an all-time high.
Pakistan and Uzbekistan inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment in May 2020 to encourage trade between the two nations.
Pakistan and Uzbekistan also inked a Transit Trade Agreement, among other deals, to improve transit trade in 2021.
This deal covers commerce and transit of commodities by road and rail as well as customs processes and will shift the entire trade from Uzbekistan to Iran’s Port Bandar Abbas to Pakistani seaports. It will also connect Pakistan seaports to the CARs.
PTA Between Pakistan, Uzbekistan
A Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) was inked in March 2022 between Pakistan and Uzbekistan, covering a total of 34 goods, and the PTA aims to lower duties on these products, which currently range from 20% to 100%.
Non-tariff barriers are to be reduced by mutual recognition of standards and easing procedural requirements for goods covered under the PTA.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, President of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that there is huge potential for Pakistan to increase its exports to the Central Asia countries.
He said that trade activities in the past are observed to have improved considerably, given the inking of the Preferential Trade Agreement and Transit Trade Agreement with Uzbekistan.
However, there is still a need for a complete logistics plan for transporting goods to the landlocked Central Asian countries, he said.
