ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said Islamabad was concerned about new tariffs imposed by the US administration of President Donald Trump but had no intentions of imposing reciprocal taxes, BBC reported on Sunday.
Islamabad would have been slapped with a 29% tariff rate before Trump’s temporary suspension announcement on Wednesday. A 10% blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House has said.
“There is a minimum tariff of 10% and then there is an additional tariff, I think we need to talk about this issue,” Aurangzeb said in an interview to the BBC.
In response to a question about reciprocal tariffs, he said: “If your question is whether we are going to give any response [to the US] in return, the answer is no.”
“There is a situation of uncertainty, and we all have to think about how to move forward with this new world order,” the finance minister added.
When asked if he felt Pakistan was losing out in the tug-of-war between the US and China, he said Washington had been a “strategic partner” of Pakistan for a long time, not just in trade but also in other sectors, while relations with China were important in their own right.
A study by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) entitled ‘Impact of Unilateral Tariff Increase by United States on Pakistani Exports’ said this month when added to the existing 8.6% Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff, the total duty after the imposition of the 29% tariff could reach 37.6%. This would likely result in a 20-25% decline in Pakistani exports to the US, translating into an annual loss of $1.1-1.4 billion, with the textile sector bearing the brunt of the blow.
The textile sector in Pakistan generates about $17 billion in exports and is the largest employer in the country, according to the Pakistan Textile Council. The industry is expected to face significant challenges from the tariffs, with potential losses of up to $2 billion in textile exports estimated by experts if the 29% tariff rate is reinstated after Trump’s 90-day pause ends.
Despite the risks, the PIDE reports also view the tariffs crisis as an “opportunity for strategic transformation.”
In the short term, it recommended that Pakistan engage in high-level diplomatic efforts to highlight the mutual costs of the tariffs and preserve long-standing trade relations. In the long term, it called for the need to diversify both export products and markets, seeing destinations such as the European Union, China, Asean nations, Africa and the Middle East as offering growth potential in sectors like IT, halal food, processed foods and sports goods.
