Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) or Brexit may hit the trade volume between Pakistan and the United Kingdom that currently stands at $ 2 billion per year.

Pakistan is struggling to increase its export volume that stands at $ 23 billion. Britain is the main country, which pushed Pakistan to get EU trade privileges and eventually Pakistan’s exports to EU countries reached $ 7 billion.

Federal Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan summoned a meeting this week to evaluate the consequences of the British exit from the EU. A senior official in the ministry said the trade volume between Pakistan and the Britain was recorded at $ 2 billion and Pakistan’s exports to Britain reached $ 1.5 billion recently. He said that Pakistan imported $ 50 billion commodities from across the world annually. “Pakistan has to make a new GSP Plus pact with Britain after its exit from the EU,” the official added.

According to the statistics, the mutual trade between Pakistan and the GSP countries had reached $ 10.5 billion: Pakistan’s share was $ 4.40 billion and EU countries’ share was $ 6 billion.

The official stated that after the British referendum against the EU membership, Pakistani exports could suffer because the Britain had an influence over the entire EU.

It is worth mentioning here that British investment in various projects in Pakistan has crossed the $ 1 billion mark. Pakistani nationals are sending more than $ 2 billon remittances to Pakistan annually. Trade expert said that Pakistan should focus on trade diplomacy with the Britain and the European Union (EU) after this historic referendum; otherwise Pakistani exports to the United Kingdom could fall drastically.

Pakistan and Britain recently launched a Trade and Investment Roadmap, which was aimed at raising the bilateral trade to 2.5 billion pounds (over $4 billion) by 2015. However, this target cannot be achieved due to low commodity prices in the international market.