Trade and Manufacturing Data for Selected Commodities

TRADE AND MANUFACTURING DATA FOR SELECTED COMMODITIES
BACKGROUND OF THE FOREIGN TRADE IN PAKISTAN
Pakistan is a developing country in the South East where the economy is mainly based on agriculture. From 1947 to date, Pakistan has for most of the years been experiencing a trade deficit. Globalization and competition with other developing countries of the region pose a future challenge for the economy of Pakistan and the gap has consistently increased between imports and exports. Though, Pakistan has made good progress in both exports and imports but the imports has grown relatively more as compared to the exports. As a result, Pakistan is now facing trade deficit, which has become more severe with the passage of time. Generally, the balance of foreign trade has been negative throughout the history of Pakistan.
However, there has been diversification in the foreign trade policy under different regimes and Pakistan has successfully diversified export portfolio. In 1947, 99% of the exports were primarily commodities such as cotton, fish, tobacco, leather etc, whereas in 1996, basic exports made up less than 20%, which is a great achievement in exports (See Husain, 1998, p 277-281).
The export contribution mainly comes from the manufacturing industries and raw material such as food, fish and fish preparations, fruits, vegetables and spices, textile, cotton, clothing and agricultural commodities. Other exports of Pakistan are floor coverings and tape stripes, sports goods, jewellery, surgical instruments, cutlery, tobacco, furniture, chemicals and pharmaceutical products. “Pakistani government gave financial incentives to encourage the exports especially for textiles” (See Looney, 1997, p 86). In addition, export duties on agricultural commodities were reduced. After 1977, the exports of the Pakistan increased sharply due to an increasing trend in the world trade. Pakistan has made significant progress from primary commodities to manufactured goods in the export...