Trade deficit: government urged to match up imports with exports

While expressing satisfaction over oil supplies worth US 3 billion dollars against deferred payments from Saudi Arabia, trade experts have proposed the government to revisit trade situation and seek a level-playing field with six countries to match up imports with exports. It may be noted that Pakistan's trade deficit against six countries has risen to $30.27 billion during the calendar year 2017.
Data suggests that trade deficit with China stood at $13.88 billion, followed by $6.66 billion against UAE, $2.40 billion against Saudi Arabia, $2.42 billion against Indonesia, $2.01 billion against Japan, $1.54 billion against Qatar and $1.36 billion against India during the calendar year 2017. The cumulative effect of imports from these six countries comes around $30.27 billion, adding to the trade deficit immensely.
According to the trade experts, a huge trade deficit has plagued the economy because of the unchecked entry of imports from six countries through legal and illegal channels. The absence of level-playing field against these six importing countries has led to a huge trade deficit which is needed to be bridged through corrective measures and let the industry grow within the country.
They said the impact of imports from Saudi Arabia, which stood at $2.40 billion during the calendar year 2017, would be mitigated with the latest arrangement of supply of oil worth $3 billion on deferred payment under the MoU signed by Finance Minister Asad Umar a day earlier.
A similar arrangement can be made with the UAE on the supplies of oil. However, still rerouting of Indian goods to Pakistani market through the UAE is hurting the growth of domestic industry which is needed to be taken up with the UAE.
They have further proposed that Pakistan should request Qatar to supply Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) on deferred payment that would lessen the burden of trade deficit on Pakistan for the time being.
As far as China, India, Indonesia and Japan are concerned, the experts have suggested the government to seek level-playing field in order to match up imports with exports. The concerned department should look into the factors behind an upsurge in imports from these countries and check whether these countries are subsidizing their exports, letting their exporters under invoicing to dump their products in Pakistan to impact the domestic industry. Also, they said, the government should beef up monitoring of the entry points and revisit relevant laws and schemes to block unbridled entry of goods, particularly from India that has already hit the domestic textile industry hard, as the export of cotton yarn has already crossed 100,000 tons per annum. Similarly, other domestic industries like tile manufacturing and footwear etc have been hit hard due to the entry of Indian products through illegal channels.