The government has summoned a meeting of stakeholders on Monday (April 7) to analyse possible impact of the United States (US) reciprocal tariff of 29% on Pakistani products, media learnt on Friday.
US President Donald Trump this week triggered a shockwave in the global trade market by introducing reciprocal tariffs on over 180 countries including Pakistan.
In a notification on Friday, the Ministry of Commerce (Textile Wing) said it had called a meeting of stakeholders on Monday “under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Commerce to discuss the US reciprocal tariffs”.
Besides, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif constituted on Friday a working group to analyse the US reciprocal tariff in terms of their applicability on Pakistan exports to US on each affected tariff line, propose measures for tariff rationalisation for subsequent trade negotiations with Washington, and propose initiatives to mitigate impact of higher US tariffs for Pakistani exports, as per a notification from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
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“The government is engaged with exporters to cater to the newly announced US tariff,” Fawad Anwar, Managing Director at Al Karam Textiles and Chairman of Pakistan Textile Council (PTC), said.
“We (Finance Minister and exporters mainly of textiles) have held multiple discussions since US President Donald Trump announced the reciprocal tariff of 29% on Pakistani products this week,” Anwar said.
The working group has been constituted to find out measures to be negotiated with the US to get the reciprocal tariff reduced to low.
Anwar elaborated that the US announced to impose reciprocal tariff on the basis of negative balance of its trade with Pakistan.
The reduction in the negative balance might help reducing the reciprocal tariff, according to the PTC chairman.
“US is having a negative trade balance with Pakistan at $3.7 billion.
“We are to find ways to rationalise the US reciprocal tariff through increasing imports from the US and/or reducing exports to the US to narrow the negative balance of trade (of the Washington with Islamabad),” he added.
The working group, according to Anwar, is studying as what are those products of which Pakistan can increase imports from the US.
Pakistan imports agriculture products including soya and cotton. The working group would also look for options to reduce duty on imports from the US to reduce the newly announced US reciprocal tariff, he added.
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“The working group is to communicate its findings and propose measures to negotiate with the US to reduce the reciprocal tariff. The US is open to have this discussion with the government of Pakistan.
“We are trying our best to send a delegation to the US as soon as possible with those papers and sit down with the US counterparts to negotiate the reciprocal tariff,” he said.
“By Monday, the proposals will be ready for the consideration at the meeting under the chairmanship of Commerce minister.”
There are 19 members in the working group comprised of officials from various ministries and exporters, including Fawad Anwar, Bashir Ali Mohammad of Gul Ahmad, Shahid Soorty of Soorty Textiles, Musadaq Zulqarnain of Interloop, and the CEO of the Pakistan Business Council.
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