Jakarta, Feb 3 (IANS) Indonesia’s Trade Minister and Pakistan’s Ambassador Sanaullah Friday signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between the two countries, a press statement from the Pakistani embassy said here.

Minister G. Wirjawan said that going beyond bilateral gains, stronger relations between Indonesia and Pakistan will allow both countries to benefit from overall market optimism of the Asian region.

Sanaullah stated that both sides “have agreed to provide market access by granting tariff concessions and removing non-tariff barriers and also help both countries to match the economic and trade relations to their true potential”, reported Xinhua.

Under the PTA, Indonesia has agreed to offer market access to Pakistan on 216 tariff lines at preferential rate.

Pakistan’s offer list to Indonesia under the agreement includes a total of 287 tariff lines for market access at preferential tariff.

According to Indonesian statistics, trade between Indonesia and Pakistan in 2010 amounted to $787.4 million, with a declining trend of 2.33 percent for the past five years.

However, the trade performance showed a strong recovery in the period of January- November of 2011, booked the amount of $1.018 billion and representing a 50.18 percent year-on-year growth.