FBR Cuts Customs Duty on 90 Uzbekistan Imports Under New SRO
FBR just made it meaningfully cheaper to import a specific list of goods from Uzbekistan, nearly tripling the number of products that qualify for preferential customs treatment under the two countries' trade agreement.
What FBR actually notified
Through SRO 1349(I)/2026, notified on August 13, 2026 and effective from August 14, the Federal Board of Revenue expanded the list of goods eligible for concessionary customs duty, additional customs duty, and regulatory duty under the Pakistan-Uzbekistan Preferential Trade Agreement. The notification amends the original SRO 329(I)/2023, which had covered just 31 product lines since March 2023.
From 31 items to 90
The headline change is straightforward: the preferential list nearly tripled.
- The original 2023 notification covered 31 product categories eligible for reduced Customs Duty (CD), Additional Customs Duty (ACD), and Regulatory Duty (RD)
- SRO 1349 adds 59 new product lines, bringing the total to 90 categories
- Covered goods include fruit and vegetable products, food items, drinking water, textiles, yarn, knitted fabrics, copper products, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and sanitary ware
- To qualify, imports must meet the rules of origin set out in the Ministry of Commerce's SRO 289(I)/2023 and comply with the current Import Policy Order
The Uzbekistan side of the deal
This isn't a unilateral move. Uzbekistan's own government approved a parallel expansion through a presidential decree signed on July 10, 2026, with both sides' preferential lists taking effect on the same date, August 14. Tashkent has directed its Ministry of Investments, Industry and Trade to help domestic exporters actually use the new preferences, framing the expansion as a way to grow bilateral trade and deepen industrial cooperation between the two countries — not just a paperwork update.
Why this matters beyond the two countries involved
Pakistan has been slowly building out its network of preferential and free trade agreements — with China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and now an expanded Uzbekistan deal — as a lower-friction alternative to negotiating full free trade agreements. For importers, the practical effect of each expansion is the same: a wider band of goods that clear customs at a rate meaningfully below the standard tariff schedule, provided the paperwork proving origin is in order. Getting the rules-of-origin certification wrong is the single most common reason businesses lose out on these preferences at the port, so it's worth confirming eligibility with a customs agent before assuming a lower rate applies.
The takeaway
If your business imports from Uzbekistan — or is considering it for the first time now that 90 product lines qualify for preferential treatment instead of 31 — this SRO is worth reading in full before your next shipment, not after a customs assessment surprises you. FBR publishes the notified text on its SROs page, and it's the rules-of-origin conditions buried in the annex, not the headline duty rate, that usually decide whether a shipment actually qualifies.