Pakistan Mulls Removing Import Duty On Fine Yarn

Pakistan Mulls Removing Import Duty On Fine Yarn
Pakistani Commerce Minister Engineer Khurram Dastgir said the government was considering removing the 10 per cent regulatory duty on fine yarn import but would keep the duty on coarse yarn in an effort to protect the commodity produced in the country.
He told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan mainly imported fine yarn from India, Central Asian states and other countries to bridge the demand and supply gap following the drop in cotton production in the country.
He said the ministry was mulling withdrawing 10 per cent regulatory duty on fine yarn keeping in view the domestic demand. However, the duty on coarse cotton yarn will stay in place to give protection to the domestic industry as Pakistan mostly produces this type of yarn.
The 10 per cent regulatory duty came into force from November 1, 2015.
The minister declared that there was no progress on improving trade relations with India, but with Afghanistan some headway had been made in terms of trade agreements.
He pointed out that Afghanistan was ready to incorporate the TIR convention on international transport of goods into the transit trade agreement and as a result Pakistani containers would not be charged duties and taxes. Pakistan became a member of the TIR framework since January 21 this year.
Dastgir also revealed that there had not been any significant progress in negotiations on second phase of the free trade agreement with China since Beijing was not willing to give 90 per cent access to its markets from the existing 35 per cent.
Talking about planned free trade deals with ASEAN, he said Pakistan was keen to give all those concessions to them including Thailand that it had already been given to China.