Interviews
Focus on textile export, says new trade policy
21 Jul '08
6 min read
The manufacturing sector also saw the weakest growth in a decade, since overall it grew by 5.4% as compared to 8.1% last year. Large scale manufacturing was even more dismal since it registered a growth of only 4.8% as compared to 8.6% last year.
What is remarkable however is that despite this gloomy picture on the production and supply side, and contrary to most other economic trends in the country, the export sector has performed well and registered a growth of 13.23% during the year 2007-08.
This is indeed an amazing achievement by our business community who faced the sea of challenges enumerated earlier. Our exporters therefore deserve the gratitude and admiration of the nation for their dedication, resilience, patriotism, perseverance and contribution to the cause of the nation and the economy.
Credit is also due to the personnel of the Ministry of Commerce and its attached organizations for extending their full support to the private sector to facilitate them in achieving this national objective.
Export Performance:
Last year the Ministry of Commerce was assigned an export target of US $ 19.2 billion, which was indeed ambitious since it was pitched U.S. $ 2.2 billion higher than the US $ 17 billion achieved in 2006-07. I am happy to inform you that the total merchandise exports for the year 2007-08 were $ 19.22 billion, with a net increase between 2006-07 and 2007-08 of $ 2.246 billion which is a record.
In addition during the year the export of services to the extent that they have been disaggregated in the national accounts were $ 2.9 billion and defence related exports amounted to $ 63.9 million.
Looking at the performance of various export sectors while comparing the available detailed figures for 11 months i.e for July to May 2007-08 with the same period of the previous year we see an overall increase of $1.755 billion.
Textile group performed poorly since the cumulative exports were $9591.9 million i.e. $245.8 million or 2.5% less than last year. There was a decline in cotton cloth [$128m], cotton yarn [$124m], bed wear [$94m] and ready made garments [$39m]. Some textile items registered growth and they were art silk and synthetic textiles [$81m] and knitwear [$31m].
The 2.5% decrease in the textile group which constitutes a major chunk of about 57% of our total exports has significantly impacted our overall exports growth. Some reasons for this poor performance are that
• Bed wear a major item declined in the US market due to stiff competition from India and China, as well as preferential tariffs available to our other competitors under arrangements such as NAFTA, CAFTA and AGOA etc.
• In the European Union our bed linen exports suffered due to an average anti dumping duty of 5.7%. Moreover our competitors such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka have duty free access whereas our textiles attract on average a duty of 17-23%. The happy news is that the anti dumping duty will run its course by January-February 2009 and our bed linen exports should pick up after that.
• Towels exports have decreased due to higher cotton and yarn prices
• The marketing of our textiles is hampered by visa restrictions for our businessmen and travel advisories preventing buyers coming to Pakistan.
• Less emphasis on quality and compliance issues is also hurting our textile exports
Click here to view more:
What is remarkable however is that despite this gloomy picture on the production and supply side, and contrary to most other economic trends in the country, the export sector has performed well and registered a growth of 13.23% during the year 2007-08.
This is indeed an amazing achievement by our business community who faced the sea of challenges enumerated earlier. Our exporters therefore deserve the gratitude and admiration of the nation for their dedication, resilience, patriotism, perseverance and contribution to the cause of the nation and the economy.
Credit is also due to the personnel of the Ministry of Commerce and its attached organizations for extending their full support to the private sector to facilitate them in achieving this national objective.
Export Performance:
Last year the Ministry of Commerce was assigned an export target of US $ 19.2 billion, which was indeed ambitious since it was pitched U.S. $ 2.2 billion higher than the US $ 17 billion achieved in 2006-07. I am happy to inform you that the total merchandise exports for the year 2007-08 were $ 19.22 billion, with a net increase between 2006-07 and 2007-08 of $ 2.246 billion which is a record.
In addition during the year the export of services to the extent that they have been disaggregated in the national accounts were $ 2.9 billion and defence related exports amounted to $ 63.9 million.
Looking at the performance of various export sectors while comparing the available detailed figures for 11 months i.e for July to May 2007-08 with the same period of the previous year we see an overall increase of $1.755 billion.
Textile group performed poorly since the cumulative exports were $9591.9 million i.e. $245.8 million or 2.5% less than last year. There was a decline in cotton cloth [$128m], cotton yarn [$124m], bed wear [$94m] and ready made garments [$39m]. Some textile items registered growth and they were art silk and synthetic textiles [$81m] and knitwear [$31m].
The 2.5% decrease in the textile group which constitutes a major chunk of about 57% of our total exports has significantly impacted our overall exports growth. Some reasons for this poor performance are that
• Bed wear a major item declined in the US market due to stiff competition from India and China, as well as preferential tariffs available to our other competitors under arrangements such as NAFTA, CAFTA and AGOA etc.
• In the European Union our bed linen exports suffered due to an average anti dumping duty of 5.7%. Moreover our competitors such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Sri Lanka have duty free access whereas our textiles attract on average a duty of 17-23%. The happy news is that the anti dumping duty will run its course by January-February 2009 and our bed linen exports should pick up after that.
• Towels exports have decreased due to higher cotton and yarn prices
• The marketing of our textiles is hampered by visa restrictions for our businessmen and travel advisories preventing buyers coming to Pakistan.
• Less emphasis on quality and compliance issues is also hurting our textile exports
Click here to view more:
Government of Pakistan Ministry of Commerce
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