How would US - China trade war hit Pakistan?
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has shifted its economic reliance on Beijing from Washington DC, therefore, it might face Washington DC's wrath as a result of a looming trade war between United States and China, the two economic giants on the world map.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has already placed the Islamabad on the global terror financing watch-list from June 2018 onwards, so Islamabad's growing business and political relations with Beijing might prompt the world super power to continue highlighting the deficiencies in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) framework of Pakistan.
Despite enactment of legislation, issuance of regulations and guidelines by the State Bank and the Securities Exchange Commission to the financial sector and establishment of the Financial Monitoring Unit etc, Washington DC might continue to label Pakistan more loudly and forcibly as a country where terrorist outfits are still allowed to raise funds.
As China and Pakistan have cemented business ties under the ongoing $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), new protectionist measures and tariffs might force Beijing to revisit its global investment priorities.
Resultantly, flow of funds from Beijing to CPEC might be hampered and delay China's long-dreamt geopolitical goal of emerging as an alternate power centre to US by expanding its economic footprint across regions.
Pakistan would hence suffer because its infrastructure-laying plans under CPEC would also be delayed due to Beijing's compounding difficulties and trade worries.
And last but not least, Pakistani professionals might of course find it hard to hunt employment opportunities in the United States while those already working there might find their jobs being threatened.
