Export competitiveness with border-sharing countries: an assessment of Pakistan

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze the export competitiveness of Pakistan with border-sharing countries, i.e. Afghanistan, China, India and Iran for the year 2014.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA) index to measure export competitiveness with border-sharing countries. The study has split the results into highest and marginal comparative advantage and disadvantage according to the rank.FindingsPakistan is exporting 160, 155, 133 and 60 commodities at three-digit level of Standard International Trade Code (Rev 3) classification to Afghanistan, China, India and Iran, respectively. The results suggest that Pakistan has highest and marginal comparative disadvantage in more than half of these commodities exported to border-sharing countries. Pakistan can improve its market share for rice in Afghanistan, China and Iran. Special measures and productive efforts are required to improve the export competitiveness of cotton, textile yarn and cotton fabric in border-sharing countries.Practical implicationsPakistan has to adopt special strategies to improve the competitiveness of those commodities that fall in marginal comparative advantage and disadvantage. To increase the volume of cross-border trading, political and diplomatic channels are required among the countries especially the border-sharing countries.Originality/valueExport competitiveness of Pakistan is analyzed for all the commodities exported to border-sharing countries and categorized into highest and marginal comparative advantage and disadvantage. To avoid the problem of asymmetry in Balassa index revealed comparative advantage, RSCA index is used.