Pakistan pushes Qatar to fast-track GCC trade deal at Doha joint task force
Pakistan has finished its own approvals for the Pakistan-Gulf Cooperation Council free trade agreement and sent the agreed text to the GCC Secretariat on 31 December 2025, commerce minister Jam Kamal Khan told Qatari officials in Doha, pressing them to help push the deal over the line.
Kamal co-chaired the second meeting of the Pakistan-Qatar Joint Task Force on Trade and Investment with Qatar's minister of state for foreign trade affairs, Dr Ahmad bin Mohammed Al-Sayed. The Special Investment Facilitation Council, which serves as the task force's secretariat, coordinated the Pakistani side, with ministries joining virtually. The two ministers also signed the minutes of the task force's first meeting.
Beyond the GCC file, Pakistan asked Qatar to lift restrictions on bone-in meat exports, saying a technical dossier covering animal health and food safety had already gone to the relevant Qatari authorities. It also flagged a proposed government-to-government rice supply deal between the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and Qatar's Hassad Food, which has been sent to the federal cabinet for approval.
The investment pitch spanned modern agriculture, grain silos, cold storage and cold-chain infrastructure, plus joint manufacturing of new energy and electric vehicles under Pakistan's new EV policy. Pakistan also sought Qatari money in IT and digital infrastructure, shipping and maritime transport including oil tankers, LNG carriers and container vessels, and the proposed Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway, which it presented as a route linking its seaports to Central Asia.
Pakistan floated the concept of an investment fund open to Qatari participation across infrastructure, agriculture, industry and IT, and pressed for the eleven technical working groups agreed at the first meeting to start work. It has shared its own nominations and asked Qatar to send its counterparts, with sector reports due before a third task force meeting to be hosted by Pakistan. On the sidelines, Kamal met Nan Li Collins, head of the World Investment Forum, to discuss regional economic integration and connectivity.
