Daily Times, Pakistan

Second round of Pak-China FTA talks on

8 December 2005

BEIJING: Pakistan and China on Wednesday started second-round of negotiations on Free Trade Agreement (FTA), with a pledge to make it an effective document, giving boost to their bilateral trade and establishing mutually beneficial cooperative partnership.

Pakistan was being represented at the talks by a six-member delegation led by Shahid Bashir, a senior official of ministry of commerce. The second round was likely to continue till Friday.

Sources told APP the two sides would discuss modalities and their respective proposals regarding the free trade arrangement.

They would also finalise Rules of Origin, which were essential for operationalising the Early Harvest Programme (EHP), which was concluded and signed following the talks held in Islamabad April this year between prime minister Shaukat Aziz and the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao.