The Third Meeting of the Second Phase of the Negotiations on the China-Pakistan Free Trade Area was successfully held in Islamabad on January 6-8, 2015. The two sides had talks on such topics as the implementation effect of lowering taxes in the first phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Area, the mode of lowering taxes of goods in trade in the second phase and the expansion of opening up in the service and investment fields at the meeting, with positive progress. 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 enjoyed a rapid development. According to the statistics of 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.
