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Eight developing countries to enhance trade volume to 500 bln USD

Xinhua, February 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

A group of developing Islamic countries have agreed to boost their trade volume from the existing 120.5 billion U.S. dollars to 500 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2018, officials said here Wednesday.

Trade ministers from the D-8, grouping eight Islamic countries, met in Islamabad and agreed to operationalize their Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) from July 1 this year, Pakistan Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir said.

The member countries include Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Pakistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria have already ratified the PTA and would implement it from July. Bangladesh and Egypt would implement it after ratification, Dastagir told a news conference at the conclusion of the two-day meeting.

The PTA envisages boosting intra D-8 trade from the existing 120.5 billion U.S. dollars to 500 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2018.

The Pakistani minister said D-8 PTA would help the country diversify its exports both product-wise and market-wise.

The D-8 Trade Ministers' Council issued Islamabad Declaration, emphasizing that an equitable global trading regime should take fully into account the conditions of developing countries and the Least Developed Countries.

The meeting tasked customs official of the member states to meet in three months with a view to preparing implementation of D-8 PTA Rules of Origin.

It also tasked the Supervisory Committee to finalize the Dispute Settlement document in its special session in Istanbul.

Secretary General of D-8 Dr Ali Mohammad Mousavi described understanding on implementation of PTA as an important step forward to promote intra D-8 trade.

The next Trade Ministers Council meeting would be held next year in Malaysia. Enditem