The trade integration and Pakistan’s export performance

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of trade integration on Pakistan’s export performance (value of exports, number of exporters and number of products per exporter) during 2003 to 2010. Design/methodology/approach Data from the World Bank Exporters Dynamics Database are analysed using fixed effect panel data techniques. Findings The results suggest that trade integration with South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), China and Iran play remarkable role in improving export value by 73, 29 and 55 per cent, respectively. It is found that on average more than 140 and 339 exporters increase after integration with SAFTA and China, respectively, and during the study period, 1,605 and 606 exporters entered into SAFTA and Chinese market, respectively. Moreover, 182 and 146 additional exporters entered in Malaysian and Iranian export market after integration, which is 19 and 98 per cent, respectively, of initial year’s number of exporters. In addition, Malaysia and Mauritius show positive and considerable effect on diversification of product variety. Originality/value This is an original empirical research. The contributions of the paper are many fold: this paper is first to analyse the effect of Pakistan’s trade integration established during 2000s decade; pioneer contribution of this study is to use the number of exporters and number of products, as well as the value of exports to measure the export performance of Pakistan; and this study uses positive and negative discrepancies in export value data, number of HS6 products exported as a proxy of product diversification, share of industrial exports in total exports and share of textile exports in industrial exports.

Does the China–Pakistan free trade agreement benefit the vegetable exports of Pakistan? A gravity estimation

“…The coefficient obtained from PPML also confirms the positive association of PMFTA with the vegetable exports of Pakistan, though with a lower magnitude in comparison with OLS and FE estimations. Our results are consistent with the findings of (Alam, 2018). Pakistan's trade agreements with China, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia show consistently positive and significant coefficients across various estimations.…”

Does a Free Trade Agreement’s Impact on the Export of Halal Food to OIC Countries Matter? Evidence from Indonesia

“…Two approaches commonly used to examine the impact of FTAs are gravity models (Abidin et al, 2013;Ahmed et al, 2021;Alam, 2015;Ali et al, 2020;Anderson & Yotov, 2016;Dianniar, 2013;Didia et al, 2015;Guan & Sheong, 2020;Hayakawa et al, 2016;Herath, 2014;Lopez, 2019;Mahabir et al, 2020;Urata & Okabe, 2007) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models (Kartini & Margaret, 2020;Kustiari & Hermanto, 2017;Muchopa et al, 2020;Nekhay et al, 2020;Phat & Hanh, 2019;Rosyadi & Widodo, 2018;Tsutsumi et al, 2019). Bekkers & Rojas-Ramagosa (2018) compared these two models and found that they have distinct advantages while showing a certain degree of convergence in the literature.…”

“…However, further discussion is needed to explore the role of globalization in the halal food trade, particularly in international trade issues such as trade agreements among countries. Urata & Okabe (2007) examine the impact of FTAs on total trade using the gravity model, while Alam (2015) explores the impact of FTAs on Pakistan's export performance. Several FTA variables include the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), Bilateral-China, Bilateral-Malaysia, Bilateral-Sri Lanka, Bilateral-Mauritius, and Bilateral-Iran.…”

“…Some academics argue that FTAs can open up new export opportunities (Effendi, 2014;Kustiari & Hermanto, 2017;Lembang & Pratomo, 2013;Lim et al, 2020;Tsutsumi et al, 2019;Urata & Okabe, 2007;Zidouemba & Jallab, 2021). However, there is also concern that specific industrial sectors may face competitive pressures and the risk of failure if they cannot compete in global markets (Alam, 2015;Dianniar, 2013;Mareta, 2018). Agriculture and food sovereignty are central issues in Indonesia's FTA debate, and there are concerns that FTAs might harm Indonesia's food security and food sovereignty.…”

Analysis of Export Competitiveness Textile and Apparel Indonesia, China, India

“…Although China is an exporter of textiles and apparel to more than 209 countries, the Chinese market is flooded with textiles and apparel from Indonesia. The data for textile export and manufactured export are collected from UN COMTRADE Statistics from World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) provided by World Bank (Alam, 2018) The strength of the Chinese economy is seen from the total export number of 2,263,370,504.30 in thousands of US $ and total imports 1,843,792,938.80 in thousands of US $, this can be called the Chinese trade balance leading to a positive trade balance 419,577,565.51 in thousands of US $ Trade growth of 2.43% compared to world growth of 1.50% (WITS). While India had a total export of 294,364,490.16 in thousands of US $ and total imports of 444,052,353.84 in thousands of US $, until the end of 2017 the Indian trade balance was negative (149,687,863.67) in thousands of US $.…”