Australia Sharply Cut Tariff on Commodities Imported from Pakistan

According to the report from Pakistan Daily Times, Australia Government recently announced Pakistan Government that, from January 1st 2010, Australia customs will lower the tariff on some commodities imported from Pakistan, with the largest lowering scope of 10%. Moreover, the tariff will be cut further by 5% from January 1st 2015.

This round of tariff cut including the following five categories: commodities with tariff cut of 10% including beddings, towels, garments, knit goods and leather clothes; tariff cut of 5% including cotton clothes, footballs, silks, leather materials, and shoes etc.; zero-tariff products including rice, carpets, medical appliances and cotton bags; tariff cut from 5% to10% on leather gloves and from zero to 5% on metal table wares.

However, the Pakistan official said that, the major obstacle of currently Pakistan commodities exporting to Australia is not tariff, but non-tariff trade barriers in inspection and quarantine etc. On February 15 and 16, the two countries will hold Joint Committee of Economics and Trade in Pakistan Capital, and the aforementioned problems will be discussed during the meeting.

According to the statistics from Pakistan, from 2008 to 2009, the total trade value between Pakistan and Australia amounted to 628 million U.S. dollars, only accounting for 1.2% of the total trade value of Pakistan. Among them, the export of Pakistan was 129 million U.S. dollars and the import was 499 million U.S. dollars