Pakistan and Thailand move towards FTA
Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, said on 27 January, 2012, that Pakistan was keen to move towards a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand and stressed the need for focused talks on increased bilateral trade between the two countries.
Talking to Yingluck Shinawatra, the Prime Minister of Thailand, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting, Mr Gilani said the trade between the two countries was increasing progressively and had touched $1 billion. He said there was a huge potential to increase it further.
Pakistan’s foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said Pakistan and Thailand had agreed to initiate a process towards an FTA in 2005. She said Thailand was keen to move forward and said the two sides agreed on activating the Joint Economic Commission.
Ms Khar also said that Mr Gilani was appreciative of Thailand’s consistent support to Pakistan’s Full Dialogue Partnership with the ASEAN, which would be of mutual benefit for both countries.
Ms Shinawatra expressed strong support for the efforts to strengthen trade and economic cooperation. She also underlined the potential of the proposed new institutional frameworks like Joint Trade Committee (JTC) and Joint Business Council (JBC) in deepening and broadening bilateral economic ties.
In 2010, the volume of bilateral trade touched $915 million; textile, yarn, seafood, leather, chemical product, and medical equipment accounting for Pakistan’s major exports to Thailand, and motorcars, chemical product, plastic, air conditioner and parts, synthetic textile, rubber product, refrigerator and cloth accounting for Thai exports to Pakistan.
