He said that there is huge trade potential of almost $ 10 billion between both countries while the current trade is approximately $ 500 million. In December 2013, the EU granted GSP+ status to Pakistan wherein it was expected that Turkey will also do the same, but Turkey proposed FTA between both countries and negotiation started in 2015.
A total seven rounds of negotiations have taken place till 2018 wherein both countries are agreed to reduce customs and regulatory duties by 85 percent but the agreement could not be completed yet. He said that Turkey is comparatively small country with population 80 million but its GDP ranked 7 globally with $ 858 billion in 2016 while Pakistan ranked 40 with GDP of $ 284 billion despite huge population of 210 million people.