KARACHI: Repres­entatives of exporters are confident that a proposal under consideration in Washington to impose 10 per cent additional duties on imports would not hurt Pakistan’s exports.

The US Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed to the Trump administration to slap 10pc additional duties on imports from Pakistan, Canada, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, Taiwan, Britain and the European Union.

Exporters said the buyers in the US have to pay the duties making the Pakistani products costly after reaching the American market.

Javed Bilwani, an exporter who is a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, said Pakistan was already facing 16.5pc tax on export of textile products to the US, while an additional 10pc duty was imposed after the US Supreme Court struck down the new tariff regime to change the world trade order.

Importers in the United States had approached the Supreme Court against President Trump’s new tariff regime, which jolted the global market since the tariffs on imports were too high.

The top US court struck down the regime in February, but President Trump again imposed a 10pc additional duty on many countries, including Pakistan.

“Our products are already facing 26.5 per cent total duties in the United States. This makes our products costly in the US market,” Bilwani said.

Costly products

Pakistani products are already costlier than those from other countries in the region due to higher energy prices, higher interest rate and higher prices of imported constituents required for exports.

“Since the 10pc additional duty would end on July 24, the US government wants to continue it by reimposing it,” he said.

Data shows that the balance of trade with the US is in favour of Pakistan.

However, for the last three years imports from the US have started rising, while exports saw only a marginal improvement in FY25.

The State Bank’s data shows exports to the USA during July-April FY26 were $5.124 billion, compared to $5bn during the same period of the previous year. Exports rose to $6.03bn in FY25 from $5.44bn in FY24.

Imports from the United States were less than fifty per cent of exports during this period for the last three years. During the July-April FY26 period, exports totalled $2.54bn, against $1.9bn during the same period of last fiscal year. In FY25, total imports were $2.35bn and $1.875bn in FY24.

“If the 10pc additional duty is not reimposed at the end of this month, Pakistani products would get the benefit of price differential in the US market,” said Amir Aziz, a textile exporter.

He said if the 10pc duty continues in future, the situation would hurt Pakistan since “our products are already the costliest in the region as competitors in other countries have the advantage of lower cost of production”.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2026