New momentum for ties with Pakistan
Pakistan, an all-weather friend and important trade partner of China, has had an impressive economic growth rate in recent years (it was 4.1 percent in 2014). With per capita GDP of more than $1,300 and a population of nearly 200 million (the sixth-largest in the world), the South Asian country is witnessing an increase in its middle class population at a fast pace.
Of all Pakistan's bilateral trade partnerships, the one with China is perhaps the only one that meets all the criteria of cross-border cooperation. The China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, which was signed in 2006 and implemented the next year, was the first FTA that Islamabad signed. And the FTA service trade agreement signed in 2009 is still the most open and comprehensive of its kind for both countries.
The first stage of implementation of the China-Pakistan FTA, which covers commodity and service trade and investment, granted 85 percent of the commodities in bilateral trade mutual preferential duty within five years. The second-stage agreement reached earlier this month increased such commodities to 90 percent.