Analysis of bilateral trade liberalization and South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) on Pakistan's economy by using CGE model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to quantify and analyze the relative impact of agriculture Trade liberalization and South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) over the global economic welfare. The objectives are to analyze and quantify the potential economic cost and benefits of the prospective trade between India and Pakistan to consumers, producers and government of the two countries by analyzing the potential economic costs and benefits of Pak‐India trade in exporting various consumer goods. Design/methodology/approach – The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) database is the database for the GTAP model of the world economy, which is publicly available. The main data source for this model is “The GTAP 4 Data Base” which is easy to adapt to appropriate sectoral and regional aggregations that allow one to focus on specific policy questions. The regional databases in the model are derived from individual country input‐output (I/O) tables that provide information about the individual regional economies in the model. The bilateral trade data are primarily derived from the United Nations Commodity Trade database. The economic research service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture supplies the missing information in the UN trade data. Findings – The first scenario is when normal trading relations with India will be restored; it means that each country will give the most‐favored‐nations (MFN) status to the other. In the second scenario, the SAFTA will be operative, and there will be free trade between India and Pakistan, and both countries will remove all tariffs and custom duties from each other's imports. The GTAP model is used to analyze the possible impact of SAFTA on Pakistan in a multi‐country, multi‐sector applied general equilibrium framework. Originality/value – The analysis based on simulations reveals that current demand for Pakistani consumer items will expand after the free trade agreement (FTA) and consumer surplus will increase. The export of consumer items may be conducted by two scenarios, i.e. when normal trading relations between Pakistan and India will be restored and when there will be a free trade between Pakistan and India in the presence of SAFTA. Results based on this research reveal that, on SAFTA grounds, there will be net export benefits in Pakistan's economy.