Pakistan to have zero-rated access to Malaysian market

Pakistan will have zero-rated access to Malaysian market by January 2009 due to elimination of tariff on 6,669 items from 10,593 products offered in Free Trade Agreement (FTA) titled "Malaysia-Pakistan Close Economic Partnership Agreement" MPCEPA.

These items have been placed in Fast Track category; however, most of Pakistani products under the Core category are either out of the ambit of FTA or have been put in Sensitive list.

The tariff on 6669 items under Fast Track Category will be reduced to 0%, indicating that Pakistan's products will be successful in penetrating potential market of Malaysia. The items under Fast Track Category would have an edge on the products of the competing countries like India, China and Bangladesh and its effects would be visible by the end of next year.

In Normal Track, 1215 items including cotton, yarn, cotton cloth, art silk and synthetic yarn, knitted or crocheted fabrics, ready made garments, bed linen and textile made-ups will get zero rated market access by 1st January 2012. While, 2111 items have been placed in Sensitive Track which would be further divided in 3 categories.

Malaysian imports from Pakistan grew only by $5 million during five years, depicting insignificant annual growth of 1.8% while Malaysian exports to Pakistan increased by $317.5 million in 2006-07.