Pakistan's trade deficit with India at $894 mn
Wed, Jun 18 02:13 PM

Islamabad, June 18 (IANS) Pakistan's trade imbalance with India was at $894 million in first 10 months of the current fiscal against previous year's $866 million, according to data available with the trade and commerce ministry.

Between July 2007 and April 2008, Pakistan imported - through official channels - goods worth $1.209 billion from India against $1.181 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year for an increase of $28,000.

Pakistan's exports to India were at $227 million during July 2007-April 2008 against $315 million in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The unofficial Pakistan-India trade through third countries, largely in the Gulf, is estimated at $10 billion.

Last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) inked a pact to facilitate the sharing of information between the two agencies.

Trade bodies and businessmen in Pakistan believe that this can help in increasing confidence between the traders of the two countries.

'I think the pact was signed in good spirit and can help raise the confidence levels of the business community in both countries,' A.W Jan, a leading broker here told IANS.

The two agencies also need to interact more and learn from each other's experiences and share this information with the investors, he added.

During last month's meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India - Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pranab Mukherjee, they had reiterated the importance of enhancing mutually beneficial economic and commercial cooperation and agreed to discuss further steps for facilitating trade and redressing the trade imbalance.

The decision was also reflected during their joint press conference when they emphasized on increasing trade between the two countries.

According to Kamran Ahmed Khan, who has been exporting leather to India for the last three years: 'the business community's trust depends on the trust of the governments... Our governments lack confidence (in each other) and this affects business transactions.

'I would say that the governments (of Pakistan and India) should come up with clear policy of bilateral trade,' he added.

'There are hundreds of items that Pakistan exports to other countries and which are also required by India... We can remove the trade imbalance to some extent if the trade regime is liberalized,' Khan told IANS. Why is no one paying to our exports?

He also noted that India had a 'more severe' border dispute with China as compared to Pakistan but 'political, territorial or diplomatic disputes' had not affected their bilateral trade.

'I think Pakistan and India should also adopt the same policy,' Khan maintained.

He believed the increase in trade would also increase the confidence levels between the two governments and help resolve their outstanding disputes.

Another businessman, Sanaullah Chaudhry, suggested the establishment of a joint India-Pakistan commission comprising government officials and private entrepreneurs to work toward increasing bilateral trade.

'The world has become a global village and we (India and Pakistan) are still talking about whether to allow cross-border trade through trucks.

'We need to move beyond such things,' Chaudhry added, while wondering why trucks from Lahore or other cities in Pakistan could not carry goods to cities like Delhi and Mumbai.

Presently, the goods have to be transhipped at specified points along the border in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab and then carried to their onward destinations.

Last fiscal year was 227 Mil and before that (2006-2007) was 317 Mil, that was a 90 Mil improvement.
Now after the elections, until April '08 it remained at 227 Mil.

What happenned after, that we hit 894 Mil, that's a whopping 667 Mil deficit in under 100 days?

Shaukat Aziz's Government was no doubt the best I've ever seen, yet (for Pakistan).

ok so now we should decide who to trade with and who not to trade with based on trade balance with that country...by this logic we should stop trading with China too.

Sino-Pakistani trade balance is always in the favor of Pakistan; meaning Pakistan always carries a current account surplus.

pakistan should have more imports from india, and re-export to Afghanistan/central asia to make money.
this will make economical use of motorway.

No matter what is the situation one must always trade.

The best example is China and thats why they are a superpower. No matter what happens Chinese always think of one thing trade, trade and more trade and how to make money.

But Azi pai, why to trade with a country that is our enemy? We are giving them money and making them more stronger to attack on us.

The trick is to trade in a way that your strength, vis-a-vis the enemy that you are trading with, rises more than theirs. An excellent example is China-US trade over the last 30 years. It is beyond doubt that China is now relative stronger compared to the US than when they began trading relations 3 decades ago.

Actually, Sino-American trade goes back far longer than three decades. It can be traced back to early '70s. Our first major technology purchase was a fleet of Boeing 707 and a quantity of turbofan.

Exactly!

What are Pakistan's main imports from India? Anyone know?

Here is what I found....



We should be really ashamed of ourselves. We are importing footwear .....

Electronic goods? What electronic goods does Bhindia produce? Cow pi$$ glucose meter?

Trading or globalization is a destructive force, which works on the principle of surgical amputation. When you trade with other more efficient economies they amputate the most inefficient part of your economy, which frees up the capital to be invested into more productive sectors. Competition is another benefit, which encourages innovation, scale and efficiency.

India and china have been trading for last few years like there is no tomorrow. India managed trade surplus until two years back but now China enjoys huge surplus against India. So there always is a chance that you might become more efficient and turn the table in due course. The worst cost that you can pay is of inaction!

macau boy,

Really?

Read the following Article :

Trade with China: Pakistan suffers trade deficit of $2.957bn

ISLAMABAD : Trading with China has given Pakistan a trade deficit of $2.957 billion during the fiscal year 2006-07, Daily Times found out on Saturday.

Pakistan’s exports to China amounted to $575.903 million as compared to the imports from China of $3.533 billion leaving a trade deficit of $2.957 billion during July-June period of the last fiscal year.

The figures are based on trade under Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and an Early Harvest Programme leading to Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries and now both the countries have entered into a FTA operational with effect from July 1, 2007.

According to details regarding the bilateral trade, Pakistan has been unable to benefit the trade with its friendly neighbour China as Pakistan has suffered a trade deficit of $7.552 billion during the last four fiscal years (2003-2007). During the last four years Pakistan’s total exports to China amounted to $1.682 billion as against the imports from China worth $9.233 billion during 2003-07.

According to yearly details of bilateral trade for the fiscal year 2005-06, total exports to China were $463.919 million as compared to imports of $2.705 billion projecting a trade deficit of $2.242 billion.

A trade deficit of $1.488 billion was the result of bilateral trade during the fiscal year 2004-05 when Pakistan’s exports amounted to $354.092 million as compared to the imports worth $1.842 billion from China in this fiscal year.

By the end of fiscal year 2003-04 Pakistan’s exports to China were $288.259 million and imports from China stood at $1.153 billion, which resulted into a trade deficit of $865.211 million.

Five-Year Development Programme on Trade and Economic Cooperation between Pakistan and China signed between the two countries seeks further liberalisation of bilateral trade under FTA and taking bilateral trade to about $15 billion by the fifth year of five-year programme 2007-2011. The five-year programme is expected to continuously deepen and give major boost to China-Pakistan bilateral and economic cooperation and trade.

By the fiscal year 2010-11 Pakistan’s exports to China would be $15 billion. Special Chinese Economic Zones are being set up in Pakistan to allow Chinese investors to set up export-oriented industries and tap potential of the local market as well as regional exports markets.

An understanding reached between the two countries reveals that bilateral trade between China and Pakistan would be made equally beneficial and both the countries would ensure equal amount of imports as well as exports. Some key importers from China have recently visited Pakistan and had held negotiations with local producers of raw materials as well as semi-finished products so that imports from Pakistan are enhanced to equalise the trade balance between the two countries.

China has a Huge Trade Surplus with Pakistan as well as India for the simple reason that both countries are in the process of Developing their Industries.

There is nothing wrong with this deficit which leads to the Two Countries Industrial Development.

Peace

Those figures show only part of the picture and could be misleading.
By definitation, trade is the import/export of goods and services between two countries over a period of time which would include both tangible (goods) and intangible (services) exchanges. For Pakistan and China, the relationship goes far beyond just goods and services. There are other activities such as private joint ventures, FDI by Chinese firms, direct remittance and personal business investments in Pakistan. We also cooperate in businesses in third country. These would have nothing to do with aid packages, defense cooperations and economic agreements between the two governments. Therefore, in the overall scheme of things, Pakistan always stands to gain and enjoy the bigger share of the benefits.

Minus the military hardware, and we'll be in the plus.
It's pointless to compare deficits with a country who sells us products with each item marked in the millions.
Until we are not self sufficient in Military hardware manufacturing, these deficits mean nothing as such.

Disparity amongst general items, like we import toys, and give them raw cotton, bilateral trade, that should be a concern.

The 227 mn that india is importing from you is probably mostly because of the severe cement shortage caused by high demand. Be ready to see this decrease soon........

India will buy for the next 2 fiscal years, that's not called soon.
And actually it'll increase as we've stopped importing Medicines from India, hence increasing that disparity.

This is completely iunacceptable , more goods in mean less jbs for us and more for Indians. This is short sighted and one which we will regret in the future.

Indians are a human sub-species also known as homo-inferior. They plan to conquer the world by lowering the nations IQ to single didgit numbers, like themselves.

macau boy,

Pakistan – like India – not only has a Trade Deficit with China but also a Deficit with China in the Field of Services.

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES FOR 2007-2008

Goods : Exports fob : USD 20.125 Billion

Exports of Services : USD 3.590 Billion

Goods : Imports fob : USD 35.411 Billion

Imports of Services : USD 9.892 Billion

IMPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES : USD 45.303 Billion

EXPORTS OF GOODS & SERVICES : USD 23.715 Billion

Balance of Goods & Services USD - 21.588 Billion

Since the deficits with China are basically for Industrial Goods and building of Harbours, Dams etc. so it is not a bad thing.

Eventually all these Projects will give a lot of employment to the people and also Produce Goods for Domestic consumption, thus reducing IMPORTS – as well as provide sufficient capacity for Exports.

Peace