Bright horizon of Pak-Iran trade despite hurdles: Pak official

In an interview with IRNA, Bilal Khan Pasha said that Iran and Pakistan are holding talks to take full advantage of the bilateral trade.

He noted that one of the advantages of trade with Iran is that Pakistan produces many things which are in demand in Iran and many things which Iran produces are in demand in Pakistan. 'Iran and Pakistan are enjoying complementary trade capacities.'

The official said that recent meeting of trade negotiation committee with Iran has given opportunity to both countries to discuss various issues regarding bilateral trade.

Bilal Khan Pasha added that right now under the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) only 300 items are covered in the range of 7,000 plus items.

“To achieve the figure of $ 5 billion, we immediately need to increase that list. We need to pay more focus on the things which are in demand and Pakistan can export like agriculture items, textiles, rice and many other things to Iran and can import petroleum products, cement and other chemicals,” added the Pakistani official.

He said that non-tariff barriers, absence of direct shipping line between Karachi and Bandar Abbas ports are some of the impediments between trade of the two countries.

“We share a long border of more than 900 kilometers, but we only have five border posts for trade and out of those five post only one from Pakistani side is operational at Taftan but from Iranian side all five post are operational,” he said.

Expressing his views, he said the fundamental issue between the bilateral trade is still the lack of banking channel.

“Though we have signed a banking agreement but still we have not seen any activity in the regards. Right now we are trading from the third countries and this adds to the cost of doing business,” said the official.

Iran and Pakistan are right now holding the second round of negotiations between Iran and Pakistan on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Islamabad.

A three-member delegation from 'Trade Promotion Organization of Iran' is visiting Pakistan to attend the meeting. Mirhadi Seyyedi, the caretaker of the Export Markets Development Department of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization is leading the Iranian delegation.

The first round of the talks was held between the two countries in Tehran in Dec. 2016.

Last year volume of trade between Iran and Pakistan increased to more than $ 1 billion which shows a growing trend after the JCPOA.

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