Thanks to Pakistan’s textile exports, the U.S.-Pakistan trade is has been on the upswing, and now experts say the new Joe Biden Administration could facilitate greater commerce between the longtime allies, whose relations have seen many ups and downs.
Pakistan ranked as the 47th biggest trade partner of the United States, the world’s largest economy during the year 2019, according to US Trade Representative Office.
The annual trade between the two countries has been hovering between the US $ 6 to 8 billion for several years.
Pakistan exports a range of textile items including bed linen, bath, and kitchen textile items, sweaters, pullovers, vests, knitwear, and other textile materials and the U.S. sends cotton, soybeans, and scrap iron, and steel to the South Asian country.
Pakistani exports to the U.S. market witnessed an increase of 17.34 percent during the first half of the fiscal year 2020-21. The trade surplus was recorded at $1286.735 million during July-December (2020-21) against $1096.551 million during July-December (2019-20), according to the data made public by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data, the central bank of the country.
The overall exports to America also increased by 9.94 percent from $2074.080 million last year to $2280.318 million during the first half of the current fiscal year.On a year-to-year basis, the exports to the USA during December 2020 also increased by 28.86 percent from $329.616 million against the exports of $424.754 million.
On a month-on-month basis, the exports to the US rose by 7.67 percent during December 2020 as compared to the exports of $394.486 million in November 2020, the SBP data revealed.
“It is a great achievement by our exporters [and] I encourage them to strive to obtain a greater share of the market,” Abdul Razzak Dawood, Advisor to Pakistan’s Prime Minister said.
On the other hand, imports from the United States during the period under review were recorded at $993.583 million against $977.529 million last year, showing a nominal increase of 1.64 percent in six months of this year.
The jump in the exports is attributed to the bouncing back of the textile sector that has received export orders for the next six months with the sector expanding production capacity to meet robust demand from foreign buyers, an industry.
“The textile sector is currently in the mode of rapid expansion to cater with increased orders and demands,” says Adil Bashir, chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma). Said.
Textile companies are making capital investments to step up the production of fabrics with demand from the value-added sector on a strong recovery path compared to stagnation a couple of months back due to the economic shutdown.
Industrialists believe that the reversal of certain Trump-era policies by the newly installed administration would be instrumental in boosting the two-way commerce.
“We believe Joe Biden’s pragmatic approach will go a long way in rekindling the hopes for increasing the access of Pakistani products to the U.S. market,” hopes Mian Tariq Misbah, President of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
However, according to economists, the US-Pakistan trade relations don’t truly reflect their ties in other fields like defense and strategic partnership.
“We need to persuade the Americans to let Pakistani products have more access to their market as it is always better to have trade than aid,” recommends Dr. Qais Aslam, a leading economist.
Pakistan and the United States signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 2003, which provides a forum for discussion of bilateral trade issues.
The most recent TIFA intercessional meeting was held in Islamabad in May 2019. However, this agreement does not help provide access to the US market to the level, other South Asian nations like India and Bangladesh have to the robust quality-conscious market.
Prime Minister Imran Khan in a congratulatory message last week said economic and trade cooperation should be at the center of U.S.-Pakistan relations.
The U.S. relies on Pakistan for peace-building efforts in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has been at war since the 9/11 terror attacks. The Trump administration reduced the number of troops in the landlocked country to around 25,000 and an agreement with the Taliban has set May 2021 as the date for withdrawal of all American forces.
