PAKISTAN cannot build a competitive industry by protecting it indefinitely.
asserted
PAKISTAN → build → it
Nor can reducing protection, by itself, turn domestic manufacturers into exporters.
asserted
reducing → reduce → exporters
Tariffs shape investment decisions, but competitiveness also depends on energy, technology, scale, supply chains, market access, and security.
asserted
competitiveness → shape → energy
A credible industrial strategy must address them together.
asserted
strategy → address → them
Unconditional protection raises prices, blunts incentives to innovate, and rewards selling to a captive home market.
asserted
protection → raise → market
Consumers finance inefficiency, and capital chases protected returns rather than export opportunities.
asserted
capital → finance → opportunities
, protection merely postpones adjustment at public expense.
asserted
protection → postpone → expense
The National Tariff Policy 2025-30, therefore, points broadly in the right direction.
asserted
Policy → point → direction
Fewer tariff slabs, cheaper imported inputs, and phased elimination of additional customs and regulatory duties can lower costs and reduce the bias against exports.
asserted
slabs → import → exports
But these are instruments of competitiveness, not substitutes for the conditions that make exports possible.
asserted
exports → make → conditions
The essential complement is a measurable programme to cut the costs the state imposes on production.
asserted
state → cut → production
If manufacturers face a timetable for lower protection, the government should face one for affordable, reliable energy, prompt tax refunds, simpler regulation, and efficient logistics.
asserted
government → face → energy
Otherwise, industry is asked to adjust while the state’s own contribution to uncompetitiveness goes unaddressed.
asserted
contribution → ask → uncompetitiveness
This is not an argument for waiting until every domestic problem is solved; that would make protection permanent.
asserted
protection → wait → ?
It is a case for distinguishing activities with little prospect of competitiveness, those capable of achieving it, and a narrow set of strategic capabilities.
asserted
It → distinguish → capabilities
The polyester chain shows the cost of failing to draw these distinctions.
asserted
chain → show → distinctions
The textile industry association, APTMA, argues that protection on polyester staple fibre and its key input, purified terephthalic acid, raises costs for downstream textiles, while the country’s sole PTA plant, commissioned in 1998, lags newer plants in China and India.
asserted
plant → argue → China
These claims by interested users warrant independent examination.
uncertain
claims → warrant → examination
Has prolonged support delivered globally competitive costs, technological upgrading, and lower energy use per tonne?
asserted
support → prolong → tonne
Has it helped downstream producers compete in synthetic and blended textiles?
asserted
it → help → textiles
Protection that preserves an inefficient input supplier while handicapping a much larger export opportunity defeats its own purpose.
asserted
that → preserve → purpose
Energy illustrates the shared responsibility.
asserted
Energy → illustrate → responsibility
High electricity tariffs and excessive electricity consumption are different problems: the government must fix the first; manufacturers must invest to reduce the second.
asserted
manufacturers → fix → second
Consumers and downstream exporters should not indefinitely finance either failure.
asserted
Consumers → finance → failure
Protection that preserves an inefficient input supplier while handicapping a much larger export opportunity defeats its own purpose.
asserted
that → preserve → purpose
Yet an equally indiscriminate withdrawal of support could destroy capabilities with a viable future.
uncertain
withdrawal → destroy → future
Auto parts deserve assessment on this basis.
asserted
parts → deserve → basis
Complaints about expensive vehicles and meagre exports obscure engineering skills within the supplier base.
asserted
Complaints → obscure → base
Toolmaking, casting, machining, moulding, process control, and quality assurance are not tied to one vehicle.
asserted
Toolmaking → tie → vehicle
Partnerships with foreign manufacturers can develop capabilities serving replacement markets, other engineering industries, and, where specifications permit, defence production.
asserted
specifications → develop → markets
These capabilities justify scrutiny and selective development, not permanent protection for every assembler or component.
asserted
capabilities → justify → assembler
Investment in moulds, testing or automated lines must be recovered over sufficient output; short runs make each unit expensive.
asserted
unit → automate → output
Too many models fragment demand in a small market, while differing specifications prevent vendors from supplying the same part to several assemblers.
asserted
specifications → fragment → assemblers
Policy should encourage viable specialisation, common components where feasible, supplier consolidation, and access to replacement and export markets.
asserted
Policy → encourage → markets
A vendor serving several customers can reach volumes that no single low-volume model offers.
asserted
model → serve → that
Competition policy must accompany consolidation, so that scale raises productivity rather than market power.
asserted
scale → accompany → power
Upstream supply matters too.
asserted
supply → matter → ?
Reliable access to automotive-grade steel, engineering plastics and specialised chemicals affects quality, cost, lead times, and working capital.
asserted
access → engineer → quality
A competitive local supplier can shorten delivery and support joint development, but domestic steel or petrochemical production alone guarantees neither.
asserted
steel → shorten → neither
Pakistan need not make every input before it can export.
asserted
it → make → input
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
