Pakistan's trade competitiveness & complementarities in South Asia

Over the past decade Pakistan remained involved in two major trade agreements with in the South Asia (Pakistan & Sri-Lanka FTA and SAFTA). It is meaningful from an operational and policy perspective to evaluate Pakistan's trade performance in South Asia against its objectives of greater trade integration and suggest policy interventions to improve its effectiveness. In order to achieve this objective, current study evaluates the Pakistan’s overall and chapter-wise trade performance with SAARC major SAARC economies for the last seven years (2003-09). This study has been disaggregated into two parts: In the first part of the study, an assessment of trade performance of SAARC members is carried out with respect to the rest of the world. Pakistan's trade performance vis-à-vis other SAARC members is the focus of this part. In the second part Pakistan’s trade performance in South Asia has been analyzed and policy interventions have been suggested to improve its effectiveness. Certain trade indicators like Trade Complementarity Index (TCI), Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Grubel Lloyd Index (GLI), Revealed Comparative Analysis (RCA), Bilateral Revealed Comparative Analysis BRCAs and Revealed Market Access (RMA) have been employed to achieve the above objectives.International Trade, Regionalism

Regional trade in south Asia-impediments and the way forward

The paper sets out to suggest that regional trade between South Asia is quite low when compared to other regional blocks like NAFTA, EU 15, ASEAN, and MERCOUSER. The paper identifies non cooperation between India and Pakistan to be the main reason behind low trade in South Asia. The paper focuses on the pending trade issues between both countries that are preventing India and Pakistan to increase bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The first issue discussed in the paper is granting of MFN status to India by Pakistan. The paper finds that it is in the benefit of both countries if Pakistan gives MFN status to India. But before such a step is taken, it is essential that Pakistan moves from a positive list approach to a negative list approach. Pakistan can include industries like textiles in the negative list to prevent the flood of cheap Indian textiles. Once MFN status is granted to India, Pakistan would be able to raise more substantive issues, notably Indian NTBs, subsidies, and protective tariffs. Currently India practices various forms of NTBs against Pakistan. The visa restrictions and absence of financial services are the major NTBs. Such NTBs have prevented Pakistan to export more to India. Another trade issue highlighted in the paper is that of transit facility. India does not provide Pakistan a transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan. In contrast Pakistan has provided Afghanistan transit route to India, though Pakistan does not allow India a transit route to Afghanistan or beyond. The paper finds that there is a high risk of informal trade in case Pakistan provides India with the land route to Afghanistan through its territory. It is anticipated that most Indian exports to Afghanistan would be smuggled back into Pakistan affecting Pakistan’s local industry. The transit facility is by far the most complicated trade issue of the three. Though the paper concludes in favor of granting India MFN and against the imposition of NTBs, It only gives a conditional recommendation in favor of granting India transit route to Afghanistan in case India provides Pakistan transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan.Regional Trade Agreements, Barriers to Trade, WTO

Pakistan's trade competitiveness & complementarities in South Asia

Over the past decade Pakistan remained involved in two major trade agreements with in the South Asia (Pakistan & Sri-Lanka FTA and SAFTA). It is meaningful from an operational and policy perspective to evaluate Pakistan's trade performance in South Asia against its objectives of greater trade integration and suggest policy interventions to improve its effectiveness. In order to achieve this objective, current study evaluates the Pakistan’s overall and chapter-wise trade performance with SAARC major SAARC economies for the last seven years (2003-09). This study has been disaggregated into two parts: In the first part of the study, an assessment of trade performance of SAARC members is carried out with respect to the rest of the world. Pakistan's trade performance vis-à-vis other SAARC members is the focus of this part. In the second part Pakistan’s trade performance in South Asia has been analyzed and policy interventions have been suggested to improve its effectiveness. Certain trade indicators like Trade Complementarity Index (TCI), Trade Specialization Index (TSI), Grubel Lloyd Index (GLI), Revealed Comparative Analysis (RCA), Bilateral Revealed Comparative Analysis BRCAs and Revealed Market Access (RMA) have been employed to achieve the above objectives

Luminal Diameters of Major Coronary Arteries

Abstract Background: To measure the luminal diameters o

Regional trade in south Asia-impediments and the way forward

The paper sets out to suggest that regional trade between South Asia is quite low when compared to other regional blocks like NAFTA, EU 15, ASEAN, and MERCOUSER. The paper identifies non cooperation between India and Pakistan to be the main reason behind low trade in South Asia. The paper focuses on the pending trade issues between both countries that are preventing India and Pakistan to increase bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The first issue discussed in the paper is granting of MFN status to India by Pakistan. The paper finds that it is in the benefit of both countries if Pakistan gives MFN status to India. But before such a step is taken, it is essential that Pakistan moves from a positive list approach to a negative list approach. Pakistan can include industries like textiles in the negative list to prevent the flood of cheap Indian textiles. Once MFN status is granted to India, Pakistan would be able to raise more substantive issues, notably Indian NTBs, subsidies, and protective tariffs. Currently India practices various forms of NTBs against Pakistan. The visa restrictions and absence of financial services are the major NTBs. Such NTBs have prevented Pakistan to export more to India. Another trade issue highlighted in the paper is that of transit facility. India does not provide Pakistan a transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan. In contrast Pakistan has provided Afghanistan transit route to India, though Pakistan does not allow India a transit route to Afghanistan or beyond. The paper finds that there is a high risk of informal trade in case Pakistan provides India with the land route to Afghanistan through its territory. It is anticipated that most Indian exports to Afghanistan would be smuggled back into Pakistan affecting Pakistan’s local industry. The transit facility is by far the most complicated trade issue of the three. Though the paper concludes in favor of granting India MFN and against the imposition of NTBs, It only gives a conditional recommendation in favor of granting India transit route to Afghanistan in case India provides Pakistan transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan

Regional trade in south Asia-impediments and the way forward

The paper sets out to suggest that regional trade between South Asia is quite low when compared to other regional blocks like NAFTA, EU 15, ASEAN, and MERCOUSER. The paper identifies non cooperation between India and Pakistan to be the main reason behind low trade in South Asia. The paper focuses on the pending trade issues between both countries that are preventing India and Pakistan to increase bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The first issue discussed in the paper is granting of MFN status to India by Pakistan. The paper finds that it is in the benefit of both countries if Pakistan gives MFN status to India. But before such a step is taken, it is essential that Pakistan moves from a positive list approach to a negative list approach. Pakistan can include industries like textiles in the negative list to prevent the flood of cheap Indian textiles. Once MFN status is granted to India, Pakistan would be able to raise more substantive issues, notably Indian NTBs, subsidies, and protective tariffs. Currently India practices various forms of NTBs against Pakistan. The visa restrictions and absence of financial services are the major NTBs. Such NTBs have prevented Pakistan to export more to India. Another trade issue highlighted in the paper is that of transit facility. India does not provide Pakistan a transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan. In contrast Pakistan has provided Afghanistan transit route to India, though Pakistan does not allow India a transit route to Afghanistan or beyond. The paper finds that there is a high risk of informal trade in case Pakistan provides India with the land route to Afghanistan through its territory. It is anticipated that most Indian exports to Afghanistan would be smuggled back into Pakistan affecting Pakistan’s local industry. The transit facility is by far the most complicated trade issue of the three. Though the paper concludes in favor of granting India MFN and against the imposition of NTBs, It only gives a conditional recommendation in favor of granting India transit route to Afghanistan in case India provides Pakistan transit route to Nepal and Bhuttan

Biallelic Variants in Seven Different Genes Associated with Clinically Suspected Bardet-Biedl Syndrome

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a rare clinically and genetically heterogeneous autosomal recessive multi-systemic disorder with 22 known genes. The primary clinical and diagnostic features include six different hallmarks, such as rod-cone dystrophy, learning difficulties, renal abnormalities, male hypogonadism, post-axial polydactyly, and obesity. Here, we report nine consanguineous families and a non-consanguineous family with several affected individuals presenting typical clinical features of BBS. In the present study, 10 BBS Pakistani families were subjected to whole exome sequencing (WES), which revealed novel/recurrent gene variants, including a homozygous nonsense mutation (c.94C>T; p.Gln32Ter) in the IFT27 (NM_006860.5) gene in family A, a homozygous nonsense mutation (c.160A>T; p.Lys54Ter) in the BBIP1 (NM_001195306.1) gene in family B, a homozygous nonsense variant (c.720C>A; p.Cys240Ter) in the WDPCP (NM_015910.7) in family C, a homozygous nonsense variant (c.505A>T; p.Lys169Ter) in the LZTFL1 (NM_020347.4) in family D, pathogenic homozygous 1 bp deletion (c.775delA; p.Thr259Leufs*21) in the MKKS/BBS5 (NM_170784.3) gene in family E, a pathogenic homozygous missense variant (c.1339G>A; p.Ala447Thr) in BBS1 (NM_024649.4) in families F and G, a pathogenic homozygous donor splice site variant (c.951+1G>A; p?) in BBS1 (NM_024649.4) in family H, a pathogenic bi-allelic nonsense variant in MKKS (NM_170784.3) (c.119C>G; p.Ser40*) in family I, and homozygous pathogenic frameshift variants (c.196delA; p.Arg66Glufs*12) in BBS5 (NM_152384.3) in family J. Our findings extend the mutation and phenotypic spectrum of four different types of ciliopathies causing BBS and also support the importance of these genes in the development of multi-systemic human genetic disorders

Bi-allelic Variants in IQSEC1 Cause Intellectual Disability, Developmental Delay, and Short Stature

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Biallelic variants in PSMB1 encoding the proteasome subunit β6 cause impairment of proteasome function, microcephaly, intellectual disability, developmental delay and short stature

The molecular cause of the majority of rare autosomal recessive disorders remains unknown. Consanguinity due to extensive homozygosity unravels many recessive phenotypes and facilitates the detection of novel gene-disease links. Here, we report two siblings with phenotypic signs, including intellectual disability (ID), developmental delay and microcephaly from a Pakistani consanguineous family in which we have identified homozygosity for p(Tyr103His) in the PSMB1 gene (Genbank NM_002793) that segregated with the disease phenotype. PSMB1 encodes a β-type proteasome subunit (i.e. β6). Modeling of the p(Tyr103His) variant indicates that this variant weakens the interactions between PSMB1/β6 and PSMA5/α5 proteasome subunits and thus destabilizes the 20S proteasome complex. Biochemical experiments in human SHSY5Y cells revealed that the p(Tyr103His) variant affects both the processing of PSMB1/β6 and its incorporation into proteasome, thus impairing proteasome activity. CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis or morpholino knock-down of the single psmb1 zebrafish orthologue resulted in microcephaly, microphthalmia and reduced brain size. Genetic evidence in the family and functional experiments in human cells and zebrafish indicates that PSMB1/β6 pathogenic variants are the cause of a recessive disease with ID, microcephaly and developmental delay due to abnormal proteasome assembly

Delineating the Spectrum of Genetic Variants Associated with Bardet-Biedl Syndrome in Consanguineous Pakistani Pedigrees

This study aimed to find the molecular basis of Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) in Pakistani consanguineous families. A total of 12 affected families were enrolled. Clinical investigations were performed to access the BBS-associated phenotypes. Whole exome sequencing was conducted on one affected individual from each family. The computational functional analysis predicted the variants’ pathogenic effects and modeled the mutated proteins. Whole-exome sequencing revealed 9 pathogenic variants in six genes associated with BBS in 12 families. The BBS6/MKS was the most common BBS causative gene identified in five families (5/12, 41.6%), with one novel (c.1226G>A, p.Gly409Glu) and two reported variants. c.774G>A, Thr259LeuTer21 was the most frequent BBS6/MMKS allele in three families 3/5 (60%). Two variants, c.223C>T, p.Arg75Ter and a novel, c. 252delA, p.Lys85STer39 were detected in the BBS9 gene. A novel 8bp deletion c.387_394delAAATAAAA, p. Asn130GlyfsTer3 was found in BBS3 gene. Three known variants were detected in the BBS1, BBS2, and BBS7 genes. Identification of novel likely pathogenic variants in three genes reaffirms the allelic and genetic heterogeneity of BBS in Pakistani patients. The clinical differences among patients carrying the same pathogenic variant may be due to other factors influencing the phenotype, including variants in other modifier genes