As we know that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is in Turkey on Turkiye on the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to jointly inaugurate the third of the four Milgem Corvette ships for the Pakistan Navy, PNS Khaibar, at the Istanbul Shipyard".

However, the PM is also schedule to focus on business ties during the ongoing tour to cope in Turkey investment and look for enhancing trade volume between the two friendly Muslim countries. For this purpose, a number of meetings are schedule to take place between the PM and the Turkey businessmen including the President of the ECO Trade and Development Bank during his stay in the country's urban centre, Istanbul. It may be mentioned here that this is the second visit by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to Turkey in current years. Earlier he visited Turkiye in June this year and the tour had gained much limelight with regard to new bilateral ties and trade endevours. Turkey is our trusted friend and the recent leadership-level exchanges between the two states are viewed as a symbol of the eternal bonds of between the two s states.   In fact, there is high potential in trade with Turkiye in the sectors of clothing and apparels, cotton fabrics, carpets, and home textiles, also the plastics products and foot-wears and plastic goods. It may be recalled here that Turkiye is also the member of World Trade Organisation and is very much empowered to grant GSP-Plus status to our country. Since 2011, Pakistan is trying to pushing Turkey to do so but all in vain. However, it is disturbing and lamentable that this friendly Muslim country has awarded investment incentives and  duties concessions to a number of countries of the region except Pakistan.  And most importantly, both Turkiye and Pakistan are also active members of Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

In fact, time has come both should materliase and implement the required trade concessions and duties waivers  for enhancing the volume of bilateral trade to substantial level, Pak-Turkiye trade endeavors need to be balancing. Pakistan and Turkiye are close friends as they share various common grounds like they exercise same religion and are have also cultural affinities.  Most importantly, Turkiye has always been supporting Pakistan during testing times at international fronts like the crucial FATF meetings, but the previous government failed to make efforts to translate this Turkish support into an easing of trade policy between the two states.

Against this backdrop, it is ironic that their deep-rooted ties do not reflect when we look at the existing trade volume between the two Muslim brethren countries. The current trade volume between the two states stands at mere $1 billion while the real potential for expanding that trade exists at $5 billion, so there is a huge gap despite a wide  scope for expansion of trade endevours.

As a matter of fact, concerted efforts have not been made to tap the existing potentials. There exists a substantial scope for taking the Pak-Turkiye Trade to $5 billion but that requires a lot of hard work and dedication. However, the good thing is that the coalition government has started working on this front with a renewed zeal which expedited after PM Shahbaz's earlier visit to Turkiye in May-June this year and now a way has been paved for a series of new agreements. After that visit, a Trade in Goods Agreement (TGA) was also finalized, under which Turkiye is going to increasing the number of flights from the three existing destinations i.e. Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad in Pakistan and is going to add at least two more cities-Islamabad and Faisalabad to it flights list in Pakistan. A  Turkish power distribution company is also keen to come to Pakistan and invest in Lahore as well. And most importantly, this MoU is to help enhance the bilateral trade volume by taking it to $5 billion in the next three years which is a good omen.

Financial experts have advised the coalition government to take all the stakeholders on board while taking business initiatives and finalizing the trade agreements between the two states to make them more viable and result-oriented so that people of both countries can reap the benefits.   On the other hand, the joint task force consisting of relevant quarters like the politicians, officials, investors and eminent businessmen is a good idea as it will help devise ways and means to materialize and achieve the much-needed $5bn trade target in trade and investments. There is one more new aspect that has surfaced in Pak-Turkiye trade and strategic relations and that is CPEC which is said to be a game- changer not only for Pakistan but for the entire region including Turkiye. That's why CPEC is also going to feature in discussions and deliberations between the two economic delegations of two countries when Turkiye delegation will visit Pakistan for the TGA next month. So the possibilities of how Turkiye can be roped in to benefit from CPEC which has a potential to be explored beyond boundaries. On the other hand, we know that Pakistan energy woes are taking toll on our economic productivity and this sector is another field where Turkiye can invest and it is good to note that Zorlu Energy Group, which presently has been operating a renewable energy project in Pakistan, is also contemplating to bring to Lahore a Power Generation Plant and also plans in establishing an electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities in our country. It may be recalled here that in the past, a substantial increase by Turkish government in duties on Pak exports had badly impacted Pak exports to Turkiye and had drastically cut our outbound shipments to Ankara. In 2017, Turkiye increased the duties on Pak exports form six per cent to a whopping 24 per cent due to which Pak exports to Turkiye were badly affected as they registered a huge cut of 69 per cent.  On the contrary, Pakistan did not levy any such duties on Turkish good which poured our markets and Turkish imports increased. So this trade imbalance which is due to the barrier of high duties on Pak exports must be removed by the President Erdogan government. That's why Pak traders advocate a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries on the lines of what we have with China and other countries to improve the volume of our bilateral trade. Traders ask as to why both the states have failed to increase the volume of bilateral trade despite the fact that both enjoy a deep-rooted friendship and stand by one another in time of need. It is not that the two bilateral trade is lacking in opportunities and potential, the only need is to find and explore these potentials with the help of comprehensive Free Trade Agreement.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 26 2022

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