Pakistan and Thailand are ready to hold the second meeting of Working Group on trade in goods under the proposed Free Trade Agreement during the last week of current month in Islamabad, well informed sources told Business Recorder. Thailand's delegation will be led by its Commerce Minister, while Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Commerce Minister, will head Pakistani team.
The sources said both sides had already exchanged views on products of interest. Pakistan argued that if the two countries developed a value chain of automotive, electrical machinery and appliance sectors, it would benefit both sides. Moreover, Pakistan indicated its export interests in textiles and agriculture products such as mangoes and tangerines.
According to sources, both sides have effectively discussed the possible modalities of tariff commitment. Both sides exchanged views on the level of ambition. Thailand suggested that the overall liberalisation level should be around 90 percent and the implementation period should be no longer than seven years. In this regard, Thailand proposed the modality in four categories consisting of (i) fast track; (ii) normal track; (iii) sensitive track; and (iv) highly sensitive track. In addition Thailand maintains that there should be no prior exclusion in negotiations on market access. Thailand shared its experience of Thailand-Australia FTA where Thailand has a longer timeframe in a few sensitive tariff lines while the two will eventually eliminate customs duties on 100 percent of tariff lines.
Thailand emphasized the importance of value chain development. In addition, Thailand suggested that both sides should explore an opportunity to collaborate in textile sector to enhance competitiveness. However, Thailand needs to first discuss with relevant stakeholders in this sector.
In response to Pakistan, Thailand provided clarifications on her tariff structure including TRQ commitments under the WTO. Both sides have adopted a work plan of the Working Group on trade in goods under PATHFTA, as proposed by Thailand and revised by Pakistan. Both sides agreed that the work plan will be treated as a living document and subject to revision by taking into account the progress of trade in goods negotiation.
Both countries have also agreed to have 11 Working Groups, which include Working Group on Legal and Institutional Issues (WG-LII), Trade in Goods (WG-TIG), Rules of Origin (WG-ROO), Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation (WG-CPTF), Technical Barriers to Trade (WG-TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (WG-SPS), Trade Remedies (WG-TR), Intellectual Property Rights (WG-IPR), Competition (WG-Competition), Trade in Services (WG-Services) and Investment (WG-Investment) responsible for negotiations on the context of each Chapter in PATHFTA.
At this stage, seven Working Groups, which are WG-LII, WG-TIG, WG-ROO, WG-CPTF, WG-TBT, WG-SPS, and WG-TR, will begin negotiations during phase I of the FTA negotiations, while the others will be set up at phase II of the negotiations to deal with the remaining chapters. Thailand shared information on the composition of representatives in each Working Group and their contact persons with Pakistan. Pakistan will share her composition of representatives in each Working Group to Thailand before the second meeting of PATHTNC.
Since there were no meetings of Working Group on the customs procedures and trade facilitation, as well as the working group on rules of origin at the first PATHFTA meeting, the TNC has covered the discussion on these issues as follows: Customs procedures and trade facilitation- Thailand and Pakistan exchanged views on how to construct the Customs Procedures Chapter. Thailand proposed additional elements (Definitions, Customs Procedures, Customs Clearance, Risk Management, Use of Automated System and Paperless Trading, Review and Appeal, Publication and Enquiry Points, Confidentiality, Penalties and Sanctions, and Committee on Customs Procedures) to incorporate essential elements of Customs Procedures into the Chapter. Pakistan concurred with adding more elements and requested Thailand to share the proposed texts for her consideration, which Thailand agreed to do within one month. Both sides also sought clarification and update on the current/existing systems. Thailand revealed that it has already practiced EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and Single Windows which is available under Thailand Customs Procedures.
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