The Third Meeting of the Second Phase of negotiations on the China-Pakistan Free Trade Area was successfully held in Islamabad on January 6-8, 2015. The two sides had talks on various topics including the implementation of reduced taxes in the first phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Area, the procedure for reducing taxes on goods in trade in the second phase of the project and the expansion of opening up in the service and investment fields. They also discussed the plan for the follow-up work and agreed to accelerate negotiations to complete the second phase at an early date.
The China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement was signed in November 2006 and went into effect on July 1, 2007. Since the implementation of the agreement, bilateral trade has undergone rapid development. According to the statistics issued by China Customs, trade between China and Pakistan increased from US$5.248 billion before the implementation of the agreement in 2006 to US$14.22 billion in 2013. The China-Pakistan Free Trade Area has played a positive role in enhancing trade and economic relations between the two countries.
