Pakistan Likely to seeking duty free exports of textiles

DK Nair, Secretary General Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), said, “Pakistan is the only country in South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) that does not enjoy duty-free access to Indian market for its textile and garments. There is a proposal by the Department of Commerce to provide zero-duty access for all textile products of Pakistan in the Indian market. The proposal is based on geo-political considerations, and not economic factors.”

Elaborating on the present status of textile exports permitted by respective countries, he said, “As of now, Pakistan has a negative list of over 1,200 products which India is not permitted to export to them. This includes 78 textile products. On the other hand, India has a sensitive list of 878 products for import from Pakistan, which includes 288 textile products.”

“But, the fundamental difference between the two lists is that India only avoids tariff concessions for products in sensitive list, whereas Pakistan prohibits imports of products that are in their negative list. Pakistan has stipulated such a negative list only for India and not for any other country,” he said.

Analysing the competitiveness of Pakistani textile items with Indian products, Nair said, “Pakistan is a competitive producer of textiles, perhaps more competitive than India in products like wide width fabrics, pv/pc fabrics, made-ups and garments. Further, since textiles are largest export item of Pakistan, the government gives certain incentives to this sector that enhance its competitiveness.”

“However, there is still scope for improving textiles trade between India and Pakistan. But measures towards this should be mutual and fully reciprocated by Pakistan, so that both the countries can benefit from competitiveness of each other in various segments of textile value chain,” he opines.

“We have made a request to the Indian Government that no unilateral concessions may be extended to Pakistan in textiles trade, as it would have serious negative implications for our industry, especially the decentralised and SME sectors,” he said.

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4/15/2012 | 0 comments

Pakistan’s Textile exports up 35% during 2010-11

The textile exports surge by 35.06 percent during the fiscal year 2010-11 as compared to the exports of 2009-10, Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) reported.

The textile exports during July-June (2010-11) stood at $ 13.805 billion against the exports of $10.221 billion during July-June (2009-10), according to FBS provisional figures.

The textile exports that contributed towards positive growth included cotton yarn, exports of which grew from $ 1.433 billion last year to $2.184 in 2010-11, showing an increase of 52.50 percent.

Similarly, exports of raw cotton increased from $195.598 million in 2009-10 to $359.807 in 2010-11, showing an increase of 83.95 percent.

Exports of cotton yarn and cotton carded or combed increased by 42.30 percent and 50.01 percent respectively. The cotton cloths exports increased from $1.8 billion to $2.56 billion where as the exports of cotton carded or combed grew from $20.356 million to $30.537 million.

Exports of knitwear, bed wear and towels increased by 30.93 percent, 19.56 percent and 14.45 percent respectively while the exports of ready made garments increased by 39.73 percent, art, silk and synthetic textile by 50.42 percent made-up articles (excluding towels and bed wear) by 16.64 percent while the exports of other textile commodities grey by 36.37 percent during the period.

The only product that witnessed negative growth in exports during 2010-11 was tents, canvas and tarpaulin, exports of which fell by 20.74 percent.

The textile exports during June 2011 surged by 44.56 percent and 4.9 percent as compared to June 2010 and May 2011.

Meanwhile, the exports of food group increased by 36.46 percent during July-June (2010-11) as compared to the exports of July-June (2009-1), the figures revealed.

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7/21/2011 | 0 comments

Pakistan Textile exports increase to a record high

It was a year for the record books in Pakistan’s textile industry, with exports skyrocketing to $12.5 billion--an increase of more than 34 percent over the previous year. From the July 2010 to May 2011 time period, textiles accounted for about 56 percent of Pakistan’s overall export income.

Analysts say that at least part of the increase was due to slightly stronger economies in the West, as the United States and Europe begin to consume more as they rise from the global recession. It also helped that cotton prices were hovering at or near all-time highs, which allowed Pakistan to generate more income from its textile exports.

Specifically, cotton yarn exports were up 54 percent to slightly more than $2 billion, while cotton cloth exports increased 40.59 percent to $2.3 billion.

Pakistan suffered through flash flooding earlier this year, which dropped cotton production expectations from 14 million bales to 11.7 million. While the quantity of textiles that was exported dropped by more than 17 percent, the value received for those shipments exploded to $327 million, an increase of 68 percent over the previous year--largely due to higher prices in the international marketplace

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6/28/2011 | 0 comments