US-based textile product buyers likely to visit in September

03 Aug '10

3 min read

In order to lock market entry for textile goods in foreign countries, negotiations for bilateral agreements with EU and US are being speedily considered by the Pakistani Ministry of Commerce, as there is a ready market of their goods in these regions.

The aforesaid statement was made last week by Zafar Mahmood, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, during his visit to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Karachi.

Mahmood informed the Commerce meeting that, representative of Buyers of Textile Products of United States was likely to visit Pakistan during September or October 2010. More so, Mahmood also said that, China was pondering over providing Pakistan with concession in exports and also give away concessionary arrangements to Pakistan if they partake in various expos that will take place in China.

Mahmood further added that, he firmly supported the Free Market Mechanism and advised not to levy any ban or restriction on a sub-sector of a value-chain as it was against the WTO agreement rules.

Shahzad Ahmed, Chairman, Aptma thanked the Mahmood for his attempts in helping Aptma attain the re-commencement of free market mechanism in textile trade and for allowing the regulatory duty on yarn exports to expire.

Ahmed further added that, although the industry has to purchase around 3.5 million bales, i.e. about 25 percent of their usage, they have never asked for any ban or restriction on cotton exports. More so, Aptma has time and again pointed out that, the spinning industry was in dire need of both its primary raw materials namely cotton and polyester.

However, numerous trade restrictions have been imposed on PSF, although use of synthetic fibre is merely 18 percent of Pakistan's raw material mix as against 60 percent existing across the globe.

Currently, there exists adverse tariff differences, wherein PSF blended yarn has zero percent import duty but the imports of PSA raw materials are subjected to a punitive regime of 6 percent import duty. Owing to shutting down of Dewan Salman Fibre, the disparity between Pakistani PSF and global PSF prices have blown up to a surprising figure of around 30 percent, further rendering exports uncompetitive.

An appeal was made to the government that is Pakistan was to attain an export target of $25 billion by 2014, all bans and tariffs on import of raw materials, which are available in limited quantities in Pakistan, should be removed. More so, PSF imports from India should also be allowed via entry points including Wahga and Khokhrapar.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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