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Pakistan

The government of Pakistan is a keen pursuer of bilateral trade and investment agreements. It has a full FTA with Sri Lanka (2005), a PTA with Iran (2004) and Mauritius (2007), Early Harvest Schemes with China (2005) and Malaysia (2007), and is part of both ECOTA and SAFTA. It is in various stages of FTA talks, or preparations for talks, with Brunei, Indonesia, Jordan, Thailand, Malaysia, Morocco, Singapore, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Canada, Switzerland, Indonesia, Nepal, China, Turkey and Russia (among others). In July 2006, it signed a Framework Agreement on Trade with Mercosur.

Negotiations on a US-Pakistan bilateral investment treaty, as a step towards a US-Pakistan FTA, have been quite controversial and are unconcluded. After talks restarted in mid-2010, a draft US-Pakistan BIT was sent for approval to Pakistan’s Cabinet in April 2012. The Pakistani government has already signed almost 50 BITs with other countries. In 2011 Germany ratified a BIT with Pakistan.

On a wider scale, there is talk of possible Pakistani FTAs with Afghanistan, Algeria, the EU, Japan, Laos, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and Tunisia.

last update: May 2012
Photo: Asian Development Bank/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0


Pakistan, China to hold FTA negotiations next Month
Pakistan and China are scheduled to hold fourth round of negotiation on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Beijing next month.
Pakistan and Thailand to finalise FTA by end of Year: PM
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said Pakistan and Thailand had agreed to finalise Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before the end of this year to further promote and boost bilateral trade and economic relations.
Pak links US trade pact to war on terror
Pakistan’s Commerce Minister has pressed for talks on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, billing such a pact as a "powerful tool" in the battle against extremism.
Pakistan edges closer to FTA with South American trade bloc
Pakistani Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan will visit Argentina and Brazil for the signing of the Framework Agreement on Trade between Pakistan and Mercosur - a customs union comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay.
Pakistan to sign FTAs with Singapore, China, Malaysia
Pakistan will sign free trade agreements (FTA) with Singapore, China and Malaysia by the end of 2006, the country’s commerce minister said on Tuesday.
Pakistan, Jordan set FTA talks guidelines
Pakistan and Jordan set to initiate the process of negotiations for concluding Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Protection and Promotion of Investment between the two countries along with cooperation in agriculture, science and technology and other areas during 8th Session of Pak-Jordan Joint Ministerial Commission.
Pakistan open for investment, Aziz tells Kuwait
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has assured investors from Kuwait’s private and public sectors that Pakistan is open for business.
Islamabad for free trade agreement with Kabul
Pakistan has suggested talks on preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Afghanistan to lead to free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Trade should be linked to normalisation with India and not resolution of Kashmir
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in Karachi on Sunday that no progress had been made so far with the Indian government on the resolution of Siachen, let alone Kashmir and other vital issues, but he hoped that “outstanding issues will be resolved soon if the dialogue between the two neighbours continues”.
..for speedy action on FTA deal with Pakistan
China on Friday proposed that Beijing and Islamabad should speed up their joint study on a five-year plan for economic and trade cooperation and establish a Sino-Pakistani free trade agreement at an early date.

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  • Pakistan FTAs
    Webpage maintained by the Ministry of Commerce