China has reportedly offered Pakistan to start bilateral trade in Renminbi (Yuan) to address the issue of widening trade deficit for which meetings with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have already been held, well-informed sources told Business Recorder. This proposal was tabled by the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing, in a meeting with former caretaker Minister for Commerce, Mian Misbah-ur-Rehman during which various issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation between China and Pakistan came under discussion.
China is also considering to announcing unilateral trade concessions to Pakistan in order to increase its exports to China and reduce trade deficit. CPFTA Part-1 was in favour of China , given their exports to Pakistan are more than $ 15 billion against Pakistani exports to China of a mere $1.5 billion last year. The last round of CPFTA-II held in Islamabad remained unsuccessful as both Pakistan and China failed to evolve consensus on second phase. A high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had decided not to finalize CPFTA-II until industry is taken on board.
The sources quoted the ambassador as stating that the Chinese Government is considering to invite the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan as a guest of honour for the China Import Fair scheduled in November 2018. The ambassador stated that in order to make this visit more meaningful, a delegation led by the Commerce Minister or the Secretary Commerce may visit China prior to the visit of the prime minister to identify areas of cooperation and firm up agenda of the prime minister''s visit.
While answering caretaker Commerce Minister''s concern on grant of concession to India and Bangladesh , the ambassador stated that those were announced under the framework of Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (Bangkok Agreement). Jing further stated that CPEC is more focused on energy and infrastructure related projects, however, Chinese government has identified new areas of cooperation and support to the Government of Pakistan through trade promotion, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) , and social sector cooperation.
In this regard, a team of officials of Chinese Customs and Quarantine departments of the Government of China would shortly visit Pakistan to address market access and quarantine issue which are hampering trade between the two countries.
With regard to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),the Ambassador said that Chinese Government will undertake measures to promote joint venture and investment in SEZs. He suggested that the Shanghai Import Fair would be a good opportunity for Pakistan to show cases its investment potential. Regarding social sector cooperation, the ambassador stated that regional governments of the Xinjiang province and Gilgit Baltistan were working together to improve infrastructure facilities at border posts to address customs and quarantine related issues. This would facilitate trade between the two regions.
The commerce minister apprised that the market access request made by Pakistan for cherries is pending with the Chinese Quarantine department and requested for its early resolution.
Commerce Minister also raised the issue of visa issues faced by the Pakistani business community and underscored its importance for promotion of bilateral trade. The ambassador promised for early resolution of the visa problem. Minister appreciated Chinese investment in the growing automobile sector of Pakistan and underscored its need for investment and joint venture in manufacturing of SUV jeeps for which the demand is growing rapidly.