MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Advisor on Commerce, Textile, Industries, Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood has convened a third meeting of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Monday (today) to review the definition of export data, aimed at including exports from Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the final figures, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
Commerce Division, sources said, maintains that there is a discrepancy of $300 million in the export figures of September 2019 which has disturbed the Commerce Advisor and he wants to remove this inconsistency in trade figures.
According to SBP and Weboc, exports posted a growth of 11.5 percent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year but the provisional figures released by the PBS show an increase of only 2.75 percent during the first quarter and 2.67 percent in September 2019 as compared to corresponding month of 2018.
The sources said that it was observed during the last two meetings that in all probability the export figures of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have not been included in the total figures compiled and released by the PBS.
In the last meeting held on September 11, 2019, the Commerce Advisor had directed the officials of the PBS not to upload trade figures on the website until controversy about $ 300 million is sorted out, however, his request has not been entertained by the PBS. Over and above this, Prime Minister’s Advisor on Finance and Revenue on Saturday also took credit for the reduction in trade deficit to $5.7 billion during the first quarter of current fiscal year from $9 billion during the same period of fiscal year 2018-19.
Abdul Razak Dawood is expected to hold a press conference on trade figures and other trade related issues and reportedly may also share the details of his recent visit to China with Prime Minister Imran Khan wherein he sought another special quota of $1 billion, early operationalisation of second phase of China Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (FTA-II) and resolving issues in sharing of instant data of bilateral trade.
Analysts believe that China may not have committed another special quota of $1 billion on the plea that they will operationalize the FTA-II, three to four weeks before the data earlier shared with Pakistani authorities.
Dawood is also expected to share details of Chinese purchasing houses in Pakistan and showing an interest in setting up their infrastructure in Pakistan. In addition, he would also reveal the companies that have shown an interest to relocate their units in Pakistan in the aftermath of USA blacklisting a number of Chinese companies and imposing visa restrictions due to reported maltreatment of Uighur Muslims.
The Advisor who also visited US last month, will provide a briefing on the outcome of meetings with the US officials.
Pakistan is currently 56th largest goods trading partner of the US with $6.6 billion in total (two way) goods trade during 2018. Goods exports totalled $2.9 billion; goods imports totalled $3.7 billion. The US goods trade deficit with Pakistan was $783 million in 2018.
