Trump tariffs: Pakistan to boost US imports, investments, Aurangzeb tells Bloomberg

Pakistan is looking to buy more goods from the United States (US) and remove non-tariffs barriers to escape President Donald Trump’s high tariffs, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Bloomberg in an interview.

Trump ignited a potentially ruinous trade war earlier this month as he slapped sweeping tariffs on imports from around the world and harsh additional levies on key trading partners.

“It’s a bigger canvas that we are looking at in terms of engaging the US,” Aurangzeb said. “We will constructively engage, and we will have a formal delegation coming in.”

Pakistan is looking to buy more cotton and soybean from the US, the finance minister said, adding that it is also in talks to tear down non-trade barriers to open its markets to more US products, according to the report.

“We can also look at if there are any issues with respect to non-tariff discussion, whether there any onerous inspections at our end for US products, we can obviously view that,” he said.

The report further said Islamabad is trying to appease the US to seek reprieve from the 29% reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. While those levies are on hold until July, Pakistan has said it will send a trade delegation to Washington in the coming months to bridge the trade gap.

Trump tariffs: Pakistan to send high-level delegation to US

The US is Pakistan’s largest export market with over $5 billion in annual exports as of 2024, while Pakistan’s imports from the US are about $2.1 billion, as per the Bloomberg report.

The minister said the country is also open to foreign direct investments from US firms in its recently opened minerals and mining sectors.

The former banker said the crisis-ridden nation will tap the international capital markets to secure more funds for a sustainable growth.

“What we are looking for is how we get away from a boom and bust cycle which Pakistan has gone through and get on to a sustainable growth path.”

Pakistan is preparing to debut its first-ever Panda bond in the range of $200 million to $250 million that will likely take place in the fourth quarter of this year, the minister added.

Meanwhile, Aurangzeb reassured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the country will continue the reform momentum as he met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the opening day of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings 2025, the Finance Division said in the wee hours of Tuesday.

The Pakistani authorities and the IMF team reached staff-level agreement on the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) in the amount equivalent to SDR 5,320 million (or about USD 7 billion) on July 12, 2024, which was later approved by the IMF’s Executive Board in the last week of September.

Last month, IMF and Pakistan reached a deal for a new $1.3 billion arrangement and also agreed on the first review of the ongoing 37-month bailout programme.