——– Aurangzeb reaches US to finalise trade deal with Washington before August deadline
——– US shares detailed trade demands with Pakistan
——– Islamabad expects cotton, soybean imports to grow
——– Trade ties improving after long diplomatic chill
By Anzal Amin
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is actively pursuing a trade deal with the United States and aims to finalise the agreement before the August deadline, Bloomberg reported on Satur-day.
According to the report, Aurangzeb is engaged in negotiations in Washington, seeking discussions on several American demands laid out in a detailed list previously provided to a Pakistani delegation.
These demands include fulfilling preconditions for a trade deal, and reducing both tariff and non-tariff trade barriers.
The Ministry of Finance had last week said that the trade negotiations have made encouraging pro-gress. Pakistan is particularly keen to secure relief from the 29% tariff currently imposed on its exports. Islamabad had initially expected to conclude the deal by early July, but the pace of talks has been slower than anticipated.
Pakistan also offered to increase imports of American cotton and soybeans, while emphasising that the US remains its largest export market. Notably, Pakistan is the second-largest buyer of US cotton in South Asia after China.
The improvement in Islamabad-Washington ties follows a prolonged diplomatic chill. The report noted a visible thaw, marked by US President Donald Trump’s warm reception of Field Marshal Asim Munir at the White House last month.
Following that, Pakistan recommended Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — as he had played a key role in the resolution of the Pakistan-India war.
The report further revealed that Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial in April, and is currently adopting a more accommodating stance to-wards the crypto industry.
Pakistan’s current trade deficit with the US stands at around $3 billion, and the country hopes to re-duce this figure through continued talks and expanded cooperation.
Earlier, The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday reaffirmed Pakistan’s stance against terrorism, saying that the country has “effectively and comprehensively dismantled” terrorist outfits.
The statement follows the US State Department’s decision on Thursday to designate a little-known group called The Resistance Front (TRF) — responsible for the Pahalgam attack — as a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) and specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) group. The April 22 attack — which resulted in the deaths of 26 people — sparked a military confrontation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan as New Delhi blamed it on Islamabad, which strongly denied the allegations while calling for a neutral investigation.
