Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture, Nazar Muhammad Gondal has said that Pakistan and Indonesia should sign Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) as early as possible as both the countries have a potential market for different agriculture as well as other products.
Pakistan's orange export to Indonesia has drastically reduced owing to higher custom duty imposed by Indonesia on Pakistani goods, the minister added. He said after signing PTA both the countries would benefit from trade, as Pakistan was among the largest palm oil importer and Indonesia could export it to Pakistan. The minister said this while talking to Ishak Latuconsina, Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan.
Gondal stressed the need for an early Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and Indonesia to enhance the bilateral trade, saying that bilateral trade could be optimally utilised once the two countries sign the PTA. He said that Indonesia could import Pakistani citrus fruits and Irri-6 rice on relatively low price. The minister was of the view that signing of PTA would be a win-win situation for both the countries.
Ishak Latuconsina said that Pakistan and Indonesia were two Muslim brother countries and both the countries should enhance bilateral trade and cooperation. He added that his top priority was to increase the volume of trade between Pakistan and Indonesia.
The Ambassador handed over an invitation from Indonesian Minister for agriculture Suswono to Nazar Muhammad Gondal for the upcoming ministerial conference to be held on March 11, 2011 in Bali, Indonesia on the occasion of fourth session of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The minister said that Pakistan was striving hard to reduce palm oil exports and has set up a Palm Oil Extracting Plant in Thatta district Sindh in collaboration with Malaysia, which would be functional by the end of June this year.
He invited the ambassador to visit the sight and motivate Indonesian business community from the private sector to invest in the palm oil production in Pakistan. The meeting was also attended by Secretary Minfa Junaid Iqbal, Additional Secretary Tariq Shafi Chak, Director General NAPHIS Malik Zahoor Ahmed and other senior officials of the ministry.
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