Pakistan’s Trade Policy, 1999–2008: An Assessment

Mirza Qamar Baig
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Mirza Qamar Baig: PIDE

Trade Working Papers from East Asian Bureau of Economic Research

Abstract: Employing the Annual Trade Policy issued each year by the Ministry of Commerce as a simplified case study, this paper examines the reasons for the ineffectiveness of this policy instrument and the inherent inconsistencies and conflicting signals to the market that it contains. Capacity constraints and the lack of a sufficient belief in the virtues of trade liberalisation have led to a situation where the more significant trade reforms have almost invariably been ushered in by the IMF/IFIs. It is argued that reforms under external influence are not always properly sequenced, and are seldom of a lasting nature; that ownership of trade reforms can only be ensured when the policy-makers and the decision-makers come to understand trade policys role in nurturing quality institutional environment. This would require, inter alia, institutional capacity strengthening of the Ministry of Commerce (and its subordinate bodies) and giving it effective authority to formulate trade policy.

Keywords: Public Policy; Trade Liberalisation; Anti-export Bias; Market Access; trade facilitation; Bound Tariffs; Trade Remedies; Entropy Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 O19 O24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01
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