Trading Friends. Trading Enemies.

[Indus Pakistan]

Lol okay relax I will explain to you the actual problem in some time and then please give your assessment when ever you have time.

I am at heart a very vain person so refuse to age gracefully. I do weight lifting three times a week. Today was the day. And it was heavy bout at the gym and now I am in agony and tired like hell but can't go to sleep either. So short on power to think through. And I have to get up at 7 am in the morning.

My goal is to have less then 18% fat in the body but the older you get that gets harder, harder and harder.

 

[BHarwana]

I am at heart a very vain person so refuse to age gracefully. I do weight lifting three times a week. Today was the day. And it was heavy bout at the gym and now I am in agony and tired like hell but can't go to sleep either. So short on power to think through. And I have to get up at 7 am in the morning.

My goal is to have less then 18% fat in the body but the older you get that gets harder, harder and harder.

You burn more fats on this forum than you can burn in gym lol. So don't worry I can understand sometime we need a light discussion and this was getting heavy. I will reply you the actual problem tomorrow and we will discuss this thing.

 

[GeraltofRivia]

So with all the talk of trade deficit and economic problems I was looking at Pakistan's internationl trading partners. The figures are quite interesting. USA is the biggest single importer of Pakistani products but we buy little from USA. Thus USA is a trading friend in that we walk away with significant surplus. Europe is a good friend also. So is Afghanistan. All are surplus.

However China is by far huge source of deficit. Pakistan buys huge amount but the Chinese buy very little from Pakistan. This is same with UAE although to be fair with them Pakistan does get remittances from that country but still both countries are 'trading enemies' as they make large amount of the deficit Pakistan faces.

I think Pakistan needs to speak with the Chinese and demand that they tilt the playing field so that Pakistan can at least export to China as much as we import. That would go a long way to balancing the books. I understand the Vietnam at the moment exports to China in areas where Pakistan could grab the market. All China has to do is put tariffs on Vietnamese goods that make Pakistan exports competitive. Not much to ask Chinese to push the Vietnames out of way and give their 'ironclad' friends a chance? This is also lot better and respectable then asking or begging for loans. No?

Thoughts people ......

My 2 cents here. Firstly I hope you agree that Pakistan’s trade agreement with China is already pretty good. It is also true that it is not superior better than other countries like Vietnam, which can be hostile to China politically. What you are talking about is preferential agreement that makes Pakistani products more competitive and therefore reduce trade deficit with China.

To your point, I agree that Pakistan should be given preferential treatment in Chinese market given the special relationship, naturally over arguably many other countries. I think it is no brainer to treat allies preferentially and expand its economy faster.

Equally I can see the argument on the other side. this kind of treatment will make Pakistani products artificially competitive, which reduces the incentives to improve the competitiveness and distort the market. It is like subsidising state enterprises and makes them competitive by policy tool.

Finally China has a long policy of equal and inclusive policy of trading, which is a position and mentality of “I like to trade with anyone”. It doesn’t like to see as a country that cannot keep political factors away from trading policy and hold a exclusive “club”. Again personally I may have a different view but I can see the reasons behind this policy.

Final Finally as what has discussed, I do feel there are a lot to be done to improve Pakistani producers’ competitiveness. Very often price is only one element of the business transaction. There are also other factors like market recognition and business relationships, which is extremely important in China business environment. It is very hard to do business if you don’t build sufficient relationship ”Guanxi” in China. I think working on these “soft” factors are more critical than reducing the tariffs even further.

 

[FuturePAF]

We need to lower subsides on commodities (like electricity) on the people (make them pay market rate so they consume less) and subsidize our industries so they start producing. China did this at the start of the 1978 economic opening in the special economic zones. Electricity was prioritized to the factories, and not people's homes.

We also need to make local products and policies to help us conserve Water, Electricity, Food, Etc.

This is not a slow down in economic activity, just redirecting it to more productive sectors. Properly metering Electricity, will allow progressively higher bills with more use, not just linearly. Strict enforcement without exception must be the rule of the land from now on.

 

[RIP Pak LAW]

My friend your not looking at this matter with a critical analysis. It's not about 'wishes' or 'wanting' but about giving prefential agrrements to Pakistan that tilt the playing field toward Pakistan and against Vietnam, Philipines, Indonesia etc At the moment it is tilted against Pakistan and in favour of ASEAN. A more balanced field would help Pakistan reduce the gaping trade deficit.


Mr Malik said China signed several bilateral and regional FTAs, which limited the benefit of preferences to Pakistan. China’s FTA with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries has also made the preferential treaty for Pakistan mostly irrelevant. For example, China charges 3.5 per cent duty on the import of yarn from Pakistan under the FTA while it also charges the same duty on imports from India without any treaty.


https://www.dawn.com/news/1356432

Your this post sums up the topic beautifully.

Also, we need new business partners like for example in Africa. IK pointed that out during his address(es) to nation. We can export textile garments to those untouched countries of Africa where Egypt's cotton rule the continent 'as of now'. Also we must increase our production of Basmati rice for export purposes.