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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—The Philippines and Pakistan are
working on increasing trade relations with the drafting
of a memorandum of understanding establishing a joint
economic commission to lay down a mechanism to review
bilateral economic relations.
Philippine Ambassador to Pakistan Jaime
Yambao said the volume of trade between the two
countries, $71 million in 2006, is “still small,” or
only 0.08 percent of the country’s total trade.
This trade volume ranked Pakistan as the
Philippines’s 44th-largest trade partner, the
Philippines’ trade department data say.
Despite the “smallness” in trade volume, the trend,
however, has been increasing since 2002 when total trade
was only $25.3 million, Trade department data also said.
In 2003, the trade volume was $25.214
million with $13.1 million Philippine exports and $12.1
imports. In 2004, the total volume was $34.082, with
Philippine exports of $20.312 milllion and imports of
$13.770; and in 2005 total trade volume stood at $56.298
million with Philippine exports of $31.620 million and
imports of $24.677 million.
The balance of trade in these three
years were all in favor of the Philippines, DTI data
show.
In 2006, Philippine exports to Pakistan
were valued at $28.787 million, and imports were at
$42.288—or a balance of $13.5 million in favor of
Pakistan, Yambao, quoting data from the National
Statistics Office (NSO), told six visiting Filipino
journalists. The Filipino journalists, including
BusinessMirror, were invited by the Islamabad Policy
Research Institute.
Pakistan, which had a gross domestic
product (GDP) of $437.5 billion in 2006 and GDP growth
rate of 6.6 percent (2005) with per capita GDP of $2,600
(estimate in 2006), relies mainly on its services sector
and manufacturing, per the Philipines’s DTI data.
Among the Philippines’ bigggest imports
from Pakistan are pharmaceutical products, including
low-priced medicines, the volume of which almost doubled
to $4.5 million in 2006 from $2.5 million in 2005.
Medicines in Pakistan are priced a lot
lower, by 50 percent or even up to 90 percent compared
with those in the Philippines. An anti-osteoporosis
tablet, a calcium substitute that costs more than P800
in Manila under a foreign brand, may be bought in
Karachi with the same foreign brand for about less than
50 percent or the equivalent of more than P400 only; and
for a lot lower at only 10 percent of the cost of the
foreign brand in Manila—or the equivalent of only
P87—from a Lahore pharmacy that sells only Pakis-
tani-made generic drugs.
The Philippine International Trade Corp.
(PITC), which imports the medicines from Pakistan’s
United Marketing, has a continuing program to import
more affordable drugs from the South Asian country,
Yambao said. The cheap medicines are being sold at the
Philippine government’s Botika ng Bayan.
Besides pharmaceutical products, other
top Philippine imports from Pakistan in 2006 based on
NSO data are fresh foods, such as cereals, including
rice ($14.234 million), and fresh fruits ($3.867
million).
With the current rice-supply shortage in
Manila,
Yambao said, “There’s a plan to buy more rice from
Pakistan.”
However, he said there is still no
specific directive from
Manila
on the matter.
Other top Philippine imports from
Pakistan are garments ($117,015), houseware ($624,701),
processed foods, such as dairy products and spices
($144,671), marine products ($52,915), mineral products
($147,262), tobacco ($2.246 million), textile yarn,
twine and cordages (($9.621 million), leatherhides and
skins ($1.417 million), electronics ($89,668),
machinery/transport equipment and parts ($42,350),
organic chemicals ($2.230 million), inorganic chemicals
($122,772), other chemical materials and products
($177,574) and other industrial products, including
packaging products ($1.921 million).
It should be noted that most of the
Philippine imports from Pakistan in 2006 increased
considerably compared with those in 2005, which explains
the Philippines’ trade deficit in 2006.
Among the imports that registered a big
rise in volume in 2006 compared with 2005 are garments
(from $22,184), cereals (more than trippled from $4.761
million), fruits (increased almost 10 times from
$418,897), leatherhides and skins (from $952,078),
electronics (quadrupled from $21,662), organic chemicals
(almost quadrupled from $613,821) and inorganic
chemicals (increased more than 70 times from $1,736).
The country’s top exports to Pakistan in
2006 are garments ($448,223), paper and other paper
products ($2.673 million), pharmaceutical products or
food supplements based on plant extracts and fruit
concentrates ($513,482), cosmetics and personal care
($193,110), food and food preparations ($1.452 million),
fresh fruits (($41,000), coconut oil ($128,646), tobacco
and tobacco products ($76,604), carageenan (($125,200),
textile yarns, twine and cordages ($1.447 million),
electronics ($664,517), machinery, transport equipment
and parts ($13.564 million), chemicals ($760,246), other
industrial manufactures ($2.795 million) and special
transactions ($1.492 million).
Yambao noted that the Philippines
started exporting fresh fruits like banana and pineapple
to Pakistan in 2006.
He added that another potential export
product to
Pakistan
is coconut.
“They are interested” in it, he said,
although coconut oil exports to Pakistan decreased to
$128,646 in 2006 from $162,012 in 2005.
Besides commodities, Pakistan accepts
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), who now number 3,000,
most of whom are professionals, like engineers, hotel
managers or hotel restaurant chefs.
Domestic help in Pakistan are employed
by the rich or high government officials because of
their being “educated” and their ability to “take
instructions better,” Yambao said, adding that they are
not ordinary househelp but are mayordoma or heads of the
household staff.
Actually, the newly installed Pakistani
Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani is taking in
three Filipino house helps.
At the same time, the late Benazir
Bhutto was getting two Filipino helpers before she was
killed, according to Lahore-based Maria Attiq Alvi, a
Filipina who is married to a Pakistani.
Alvi and her husband put up a
recruitment agency to supply Pakistan with the Filipino
workers it needs.
Yambao said there is no illegal worker
in
Pakistan.
Alvi said the Filipino workers she
recruited so far have no complaints against their
employers.
Besides their minimum $400 pay, the house help enjoy
food and water allowances, days off, are allowed to live
out of the employers’ residence and most of them work
for only a certain number of hours each day. |
