Pakistan orders country-specific plans to diversify exports, tackle trade barriers
Pakistan’s commerce minister on Tuesday ordered officials to draw up country-specific plans to expand exports, targeting new buyers and bottlenecks ranging from market access to banking and logistics as Islamabad seeks to diversify its overseas trade.
The plans will identify priority products for individual markets, potential buyers and barriers facing Pakistani exporters, while the government will also review existing trade agreements and accelerate pending talks with partner countries, the commerce ministry said.
“Pakistan’s exporters have demonstrated strong potential in both traditional and emerging markets,” Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan said in a statement. “Our focus must be on removing barriers, diversifying exports and converting every trade engagement into measurable economic gains.”
The directives came during a review of Pakistan’s export performance, bilateral trade engagements and progress on trade agreements with the commerce ministry’s Foreign Trade Wings.
Pakistan has long sought to broaden an export base dominated by a relatively small number of products and markets, leaving overseas earnings vulnerable to shifts in demand and costs in key destinations.
The latest push comes as exporters also grapple with higher costs of reaching overseas markets amid regional trade and shipping disruptions.
Khan said officials should seek new opportunities for Pakistani rice, textiles, agricultural products, pharmaceuticals, processed food, light engineering goods and services.
The country-specific plans would assess market-access barriers and logistics and banking problems alongside potential buyers and outstanding government-to-government trade engagements, according to the ministry.
The minister also ordered officials to examine whether Pakistan’s existing trade agreements were delivering balanced and commercially meaningful benefits.
Pending meetings of Joint Trade Committees and Joint Working Groups with trading partners should be expedited, the ministry said, without identifying the countries involved or giving a timetable.
The government has increasingly sought to use bilateral diplomacy to open markets for Pakistani goods and attract investment as it attempts to generate more foreign exchange through exports rather than rely on external financing.
Khan called for closer coordination between the commerce and foreign ministries, Pakistani missions overseas, chambers of commerce and trade associations to turn diplomatic engagements into export and investment opportunities.
