Spanish textile lobby opposes EU concessions to Pakistan

05 Oct '10

2 min read

EU which is considering granting duty concessions to textile imports from Pakistan is meeting with fierce opposition from the Consejo Intertextil Espanol (CIE), a textile association in Spain.

The textile lobby is of the view that, offering such duty concession to Pakistan, may financially wreck around 1,000 textile firms in Spain, rendering around 20,000 persons jobless.

Reports coming from the side of EU state that, it is contemplating to grant duty concessions to some of the textile items from Pakistan, so as to aid the country to recover from the effects of the recent disastrous floods.

However, the already ailing textile industry in Spain is not ready to bear the burden for assisting Pakistan, as according to them if such concessions are granted, it would not only negatively affect the Spanish textile industry, but even other European countries too.

CIE President Angel Asensio recently said that, the sector cannot afford to extend help to world countries, while causing the domestic firms and workers to suffer. Rather, he was of the opinion that, at a time when the domestic industries are ailing, the EU instead should withdraw those unilateral concessions that it has granted in the past.

Also that, if the assistance needs to be extended it should be to help Pakistan overcome the flood effects in general, and not particularly to boost the country's export and import.

Textile industry in Spain, after bearing huge losses resulting from the downturn of country's economy, global economic slump and competition extended by the textile producers in China and Asian countries, has now slowly started to recuperate.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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