Pak-Australia Bilateral Trade
Though Australia is a large economy, integrated into international trade channels, Pakistan has sup-optimal trade levels with Australia. In 2019, Australia was the 22nd largest trading nation in the world but 34th largest trading partner of Pakistan. It means that Pakistan is trading less with Australia than her global trade ranking. On the other hand, Pakistan was the 61st largest trading nation of the world but 49th largest trading partner of Australia. It means that Australia is trading more with Pakistan than Pakistan’s global trade ranking. Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Australia in 2019 was US$ 435 million, which was 0.1% of Australian global trade and 0.6% of Pakistan’s global trade.
Since FY2016, Pakistan-Australia bilateral trade flow has been uneven – ranging between US$468 million to US$810 million, mainly driven by oscillating import volumes of agricultural commodities by Pakistan. The highest level of bilateral trade i.e. US$810 million was achieved in FY2017, but it gradually declined to US$530 million in FY2019 and US$ 468 million in FY2020.
Pak Exports to Australia
During the FY2020 (July 2019 – June 2020), Pakistan’s exports to Australia were valued at US$208 million, registering a decline of 9% over the previous year’s performance of US$229 million. Pakistan’s top ten export products to Australia include textile made-ups US$ 89 million, garments US$ 40 million, cereals (mainly basmati rice) US$ 20 million, processed food (mainly spices) US$ 12 million, leather goods (mainly gloves) US$ 9.7 million, surgical instruments US$ 7.5 million, iron and steel (mainly pipes) US$ 7.4 million, textile fabrics US$ 6.5 million, sports goods US$ 3.2 million and miscellaneous agro food items US$ 2.7 million. The top-10 products constitute 96% of Pakistan’s exports to Australia. At the product group level, Textile Group constitutes 66% of exports, Agro-food Group 18%, Leather Group 5.3%, Metals Group 4.6% and Surgical Instruments 3.6%.
Pak Imports from Australia
Pakistan’s imports from Australia in FY2020 amounted to US$260 million representing a decrease of 14% from the previous year’s performance of US$301 million. The top-ten import products include pulses US$ 93 million, fertilizers (DAP) US$61 million, iron & steel (scrap and flat-rolled) US$35 million, wood products (mainly paper & paperboard) US$ 9 million, office machinery US$ 8 million, live animals (mainly cows) US$ 6 million, unwrought zinc US$ 6 million, insecticides US$ 5 million, chocolates US$ 4 million and dyes and pigments US$ 4 million. The major product categories of import included food items 40%, Agri & other chemicals 29%, metals 17%, machinery 5% and all other items 8%. Pakistan has been importing petroleum products (mainly coal and LNG) from Australia, but its import declined from US$ 30 million in FY2019 to a negligible US$ 0.07 million in FY2020.
