Finance minister heads to US for final trade negotiations

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has departed for the United States to engage in high-level negotiations aimed at concluding the Pakistan–US trade dialogue, the finance ministry announced in a press release on Monday. Auran­gzeb and US Trade Representative Jami­eson Greer launched the negotiations through a telephonic conference call on reciprocal tariffs in May, agreeing to get into technical discussions in the coming weeks. The talks began after the US proposed a 29 per cent duty on Pakistani exports and later temporarily suspended the decision. By July, talks in Washington had entered their final phase. Aurangzeb described the dialogue as “very constructive,” emphasising a shared commitment to resolving outstanding issues and moving toward finalising a broad economic framework.