INDONESIA BOOSTING COOKING OIL EXPORTS TO PAKISTAN

Jakarta, Aug 2 (ANTARA) - Indonesia, which has secured 45 percent of Pakistan's market share of imported cooking oil, planned to boost the export of the commodity to that country.

"We are currently handling it with Pakistan. In this year we hope we will be able to hold negotiations with that country in our request for an import duty discount as enjoyed by Malaysia for having inked an agreement on free trade with Pakistan," Foreign Trade Director General Diah Maulida said here on Friday.

According to Diah, in August there will be a follow up negotiation on trade cooperation in certain products under the preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Pakistan.

"We have a PTA agreement with Pakistan which in this year is expected to be finalized, so that our cooking oil exports to that country could be increased," she said.

The import duty on cooking oil to Pakistan amounted only 9,100 rupees per ton, while Malaysia under the PTA received a discount of 10 percent in import duty.

Indonesia and Pakistan have explored possibilities of reaching a PTA for certain prime products like crude palm oil and its derivatives and oranges.

Indonesia exported around 890,000 tons of CPO and its derivatives to Pakistan annually.