China and Pakistan have agreed on the basic terms of their bilateral free trade pact, officials close to the free trade arrangement (FTA) talks told Xinhua in Islamabad Wednesday.

 

At the end of the third round of the FTA talks between China and Pakistan, the two sides signed the minutes of the talks Wednesday, according to the officials. During the two-day talks, China and Pakistan also made substantial progresses in consultations on tariff reduction patterns.

 

The officials said that the two sides were satisfied with the progresses made during the current round of talks, which laid good foundations for the signing of a trade agreement on goods by the end of this year.

 

The fourth round of the FTA talks is expected to be held in September in Beijing.

 

The trade volume between China and Pakistan reached US$4.26 billion in 2005, 39 percent more than that in the previous year. In the first three months of 2006, bilateral trade was US$1.018 billion, 42.3 percent more than that in the same period of last year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2006)