ISLAMABAD: Australia has refused to offer preferential market access to Pakistan because the country has a very limited basket of marketable goods and services.
The formal demand to start negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) covering goods, services and investments between the two countries was made Tuesday at a meeting with senior Australian officials in Islamabad.
Data show that Pakistan has a greater bilateral trade in services with Australia than goods with imports of services worth $ 662 million in 2016-17, while exports for the same to $ 137 million.
Bilateral trade in goods, although smaller, is again in favor of Australia, as its exports to Pakistan were $ 304.6 million in 2018-19, while imports were valued at $ 206.5 million.
A source aware of the meeting said Dawn that the Australian delegation flatly refused to start negotiations on a possible FTA between the two countries. He said they thought there seems to be no potential for a trade agreement.
Australia currently has FTA with New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, the United States, Chile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia, Korea, Japan and China.
These pacts give an advantage to competitors in Pakistan (Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia) that are covered by the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA). The countries covered by this FTA represent 67 percent of Australia's total trade.
In addition, Australia is also negotiating an FTA with India, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the Pacific Alliance Free Trade Agreement includes Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Association Agreement Economic Integral of Indonesia-Australia, the Australia-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement and the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
The source said Pakistan also demanded concessions on tariffs on the pattern offered to Bangladesh, but the same was related to the amendment in Australian legislation.
Pakistan has also demanded market access for fruit exports to Australia. Currently, kinno, guava, fish, shrimp, shrimp, meat and chicken are not imported from the country. "We have requested market access for these products," the source said, but their importation is linked to very strict conditions.
Currently, the country can only export handles and surgical instruments after meeting the conditions. "We have demanded greater market access for mangoes and dates," the source added.
Meanwhile, the Australian side demanded access to the grain and vegetable market. Pakistan's imports of goods from Australia include dried leguminous vegetables, fertilizers, petroleum gas, ferrous waste and scrap, uncoated paper and paperboard, raw lead, while exports are home textiles, petroleum oils (crude ), rice, various manufactured goods, men's clothing, leather clothing, etc.
Posted on Dawn, October 9, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1509872/australia-uninterested-in-a-free-trade-agreement-with-pakistan