Following the massive under invoicing and miss-reporting in the imports, the unexplained imports from China has stretched to US $5.4 billion in 2015. This was disclosed in a brief analysis 2016 compiled by Pakistan Business Council (PBC) in light of selected trade and manufacturing data of the country.
According to seventh annual publication of PBC, the massive under-reporting or mis-declaration or under-invoicing in imports was still unabated as the gap between just Chinese reported exports to Pakistan and country's reported imports from China had increased to US $5.4 billion in 2015.
It said that since the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006, the total "unaccounted for imports from China" makeup a whooping US $25.8 billion in un-taxed imports. It said that FTAs had failed to boast exports and termed the efforts of the commerce ministry for signing more FTAs as appetite for the country.
Despite the PBC's repeated requests for a moratorium on fresh FTAs, the commerce ministry is currently busy in finalizing Phase II of the China-Pakistan FTA as well as FTAs with Thailand, Turkey and South Korea, it added. Furthermore, the PBC stated that there was no significant demand in Afghanistan, despite having imports of primary raw materials destined for non-existent industries as well as products.
For instance, the import of black tea by Afghanistan, a nation which traditionally does not drink this type of tea has increased its imports of black tea by 150 per cent in 2015 as compared to year 2014. It said that in the absence of a level-playing field for domestic manufacturing, no amount of improvements in the supply of energy would make a difference to investments and jobs in the manufacturing sector. The PBC further said that the objective this publication was aimed at sensitizing Pakistanis in general and the policy-makers in particular to the slowly eroding share of local manufacturing in its own domestic markets.