A preliminary analysis of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (Phase II)

Project Active from 1 Nov 2019 to 31 Dec 2019 Firms and Trade

Researchers

Shahid Yusuf

Ijaz Nabi

Country Director, Pakistan, International Growth Centre

The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has requested IGC-Pakistan to support a study on a preliminary analysis of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) Phase-II.

This project will provide lessons from global Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) for smaller partner countries, which have succeeded in securing advantages from FTAs with larger partner economies. This project can help PBC obtain deeper insights about key parameters, such as price, quality, capacity, skills or technology that could help firms get a foot into the Chinese market. This would add a valuable global/ regional perspective on how smaller partners have benefitted from FTAs in the past, and how Pakistan’s firms could seek to do the same.

This project will also explore the impact that COVID-19 could have on Pakistan’s trade ties with China. In light of UNCTAD's predictions that global trade will shrink dramatically over this year, we will aim to answer questions such as:

Will protectionist tendencies tend to dominate multilateral trade?
Could the CPFTA-II be used to mitigate some of that risk?
With China focused on recovery, will CPEC-related investment be put on the back burner for a while?