Sustaining Trade and the Balance of Payments Chapter 15: Sustaining Trade and the Balance of Payments This chapter has seven parts, starting with identification of the long-term trends. The second section highlights the lack of emphasis on export led growth. The third section describes the over-liberalization of imports, followed by the fourth section on the exchange rate policy. Section five highlights the over-emphasis on textile exports, while section six highlights the need for development of service exports. Finally, section seven takes up the issue of the one-sided FTA with China. 15.1 Long-Term Trends Pakistan has witnessed a very big deterioration its external financial position over the years as indicated by the following: i) The external debt has doubled since 2014-15 to$130 billion, as shown in Figure 15.1. It was 24 percent of the GDP in 2014-15 and now stands at 40 percent of the GDP, follow ­ing the recent GDP rebasing Otherwise, it would have exceeded 46 percent of the GDP. Figure 15.1: Level of External Debt (in Billion$) and External Debt as% of GDP External Debt ($ billion) Exter Debt as % of GDP *GDP has been adjusted for rebasing Source: SBP 141