Zero tariff between Pakistan, China to increase to 75pc

There is need to speed up construction of Gwadar Port

BEIJING       -         Proportion of zero tariff between China and Pakistan to get increased from 35 to 75 per cent with coming into force the 2nd Free Trade Agreement between the both countries.

The proportion of zero tariff commodities will gradually increase, thus substantially raising the level of trade liberalization, says China Economic Net in its report published on Saturday.

Quoting it's special commentator Prof. Cheng Xizhong, the report stated the trade liberalization is a development trend, which has both advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, the advantages are primary.

First, it is conducive for the introduction of advanced technology and management experience. Second, it is conducive for promoting reform and improving international competitiveness. Third, it is conducive for the vast number of consumers to get cheap and high-quality products.

China is an active promoter of trade liberalization, especially in order to increase the export of goods by friendly neighboring countries to China, China has adopted many preferential policies to gradually reduce the trade deficit of these countries with China.

It is worth mentioning that recently India has announced its withdrawal from the negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Negotiations on the agreement began in 2013 and RCEP will soon be signed.

China's reform and opening up began in Shenzhen. At that time, we had a saying "Shenzhen speed", which means that China's development speed is very fast. At that time, there was a modern high-rise with one floor built in less than five days on average.

In early 1980s, Shenzhen was just a small fishing village. After about 25 years of development, it became a modern city, which led to the rapid economic development of the whole country.

The construction of Gwadar Port began at the beginning of this century and it has been nearly 20 years now. Looking at the recent photos of Gwadar Port, it could be assumed that the speed of construction is not satisfactory, in particular the urban development has not taken its shape yet. Although the port is navigable, the scale of material imports and exports is very limited.

Gwadar Port is an extremely important platform, which can extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) westward to a more distant region and become an important platform for regional connectivity.

At the same time, the construction speed of Gwadar Port determines the development speed of Pakistan as a whole. Therefore, there is need to speed up the construction of Gwadar Port and make it "Shenzhen of Pakistan".

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt