Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have reached a formal agreement to exchange data on values of imported and exported goods to control under- and over-invoicing.
The agreement responds to Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations for Pakistan.
Money laundering watchdog FATF says that Pakistan’s main problems with illicit financial flows (IFFs) concern under- and over-invoicing, the trade in narcotics and smuggling.
Trading partners
Once the agreement is operational, Saudi Arabia will become the 23rd major trading partner of Pakistan’s with a formal agreement to monitor and control IFFs and currency smuggling.
Pakistan already has similar agreements with 22 countries, including the US, China, Malaysia and the UAE for online sharing of information on a real-time basis that aims to identify and curb both under- and over-invoicing by flagging up discrepancies in trade data.
Future cooperation
Under the latest agreement, data exchanges will included descriptions and values of goods originating from both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The two countries have also agreed to share experiences in law enforcement and explore avenues for future cooperation to counter IFFs in areas such exchange of intelligence-based information.
Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News
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