In a bid to mitigate President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that Pakistan is looking to buy more goods from the US and remove non-tariff barriers.
The finance minister made the remarks while talking to Bloomberg News during his week-long trip to the US to participate in the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
He said Islamabad was in talks with Washington to tear down non-trade barriers to open its markets to more US products.
“It’s a bigger canvas that we are looking at in terms of engaging the US. We will constructively engage, and we will have a formal delegation coming in,” he added.
“Pakistan is open to foreign direct investments (FDI) from US firms and is preparing to debut its first-ever Panda bond in the range of $200m to $250m this year.”
The finance czar added that they were looking to buy more cotton and soybeans from the US. “We can also look at whether there are any issues with respect to non-tariff discussion, whether there are any onerous inspections at our end for US products, we can obviously view that,” he added.
He further stated that a trade delegation will also visit Washington in the coming months to bridge the trade gap. The minister said that authorities in Pakistan were trying to rebuild the country’s tattered economy after it came close to a default in 2023 and had won an initial nod for a $2.3bn IMF loan that will give it funding visibility until 2027.
Aurangzeb said that Fitch also upgraded Pakistan’s credit rating last week, citing confidence that Pakistan will be able to sustain reforms under the IMF loan program.
“What we are looking for is how we get away from a boom and bust cycle, which Pakistan has gone through and get on the sustainable growth path,” the minister added.
Trump, earlier this month, announced a 90-day pause on tariffs, saying he took the decision after more than 75 countries had reached out to negotiate and did not retaliate against the US. Earlier, he had imposed 29% tariffs on Pakistani exports to the US.
The imposition of reciprocal tariffs by US President Donald Trump on Pakistan’s products might disrupt exportable supplies in the range of $500 to $700 million at the maximum, some initial estimates suggest.
