Supply chain issues at ports

Abstract

Pakistan’s monthly exports volume reached an all-time high of Rs. 275,483 million in September 2013. January 2017 saw this number drop to Rs. 186,385 million whereas the number for February 2017 further declined to Rs.171,511 million. The downwards trend has followed more or less consistently in the months between September 2013 and January 2017.Naturally, this declining trend in Pakistan’s exports becomes yet more pronounced when the balance of trade is analyzed. The trade deficit that stood at Rs. 1,833 billion in fiscal 2011-12 sank to a deficit of Rs. 2,494 billion by fiscal 2015-16. One would think that the people in the corridors of power would be having sleepless nights while trying to evaluate where and how they erred and that these people would be running from pillar to post in an attempt to address and arrest this disaster. Instead, I was shocked to read in an article that was published on 5th April 2017 in the Business Recorder that certain quarters within the Ministry of Commerce are of the view that the Rupee is overvalued and should be permitted a free fall. In the event that a free fall is allowed, as has been allowed a number of times in the past, and exports still don’t pick up steam, as has also happened in the past, then, what do we do? How does one get the genie back into the bottle one may ponder? A knee jerk solution to a problem that is bigger and beyond most in the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance put together.