ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have agreed to wrap up technical-level negotiations regarding reciprocal tariffs next week.
The development came during a virtual meeting between Aurangzeb and Lutnick on US reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday, according to a statement issued by Pakistan’s Finance Ministry on Wednesday.
According to Pakistan’s Finance Ministry, both sides showed satisfaction with the ongoing negotiations and resolved to conclude the trade talks next week.
“It was also resolved that further to the trade agreement, a partnership, based on strategic and investment interests, would be concluded in due course covering areas of mutual interest,” read the Finance Ministry’s statement.
During the meeting, the discussion focused on meaningful engagement in trade, investment and deepening economic ties mutually beneficial to both sides, with technical-level trade-related discussions to be concluded next week.
Both sides expressed confidence in concluding trade negotiations at the earliest, it added.
The talks are part of Pakistan’s effort to secure relief from steep tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
In April, Trump reintroduced sweeping levies on key trading partners, including a 29% reciprocal tariff on Pakistani exports.
While those duties are currently suspended until July, Islamabad has been actively engaging US authorities to resolve the issue before the deadline.
The US is Pakistan’s largest export market with over $5 billion in annual exports as of 2024, while Pakistan’s imports from the US are about $2.1 billion.
Earlier, Muhammad Aurangzeb, in an interview with Bloomberg, said Pakistan is looking to buy more goods from the US and remove non-tariff barriers to escape Trump’s high tariffs.
