India has refused to support Pakistan for trade concessions offered by the European Union as flood relief measures. According to the sources the Indian Commerce and Trade Ministry has taken a stance that such measures would only help Pakistan's textile industry and not the flood victims. The European Union has offered duty-free access to 75 Pakistani products, 64 of them textiles as a flood relief measure.
The issue is pending with World Trade Organisation (WTO) Geneva where India, Bangladesh and Vietnam are opposing it. Sources in local value added industry has blamed the trade mission at the WTO for weak diplomacy on winning the hearts of regional competitors. They also fear colossal losses in case of any further delay, as deals are already finalised by the foreign buyers under the arrangement.
The industry circles are vying for early permission to trade under the market access facility from the EU, as they believe that majority of the textile workers belong to the areas hit by devastating floods. They said a revival of textile, particularly the value-added industry, would ensure bread and butter for the textile workers to compete with rising poverty in flood-hit areas.
The unprecedented increase in cotton prices has turned the textile industry upside down and sustainability is becoming a challenge with each passing day. The government had imposed quota on yarn exports last year to support the local value added industry but it couldn't work.
The government withdrew it accordingly. Since then, the value-added industry is struggling to survive and the EU's offer cannot only revive it but also create more jobs. The industry circles have expressed the hope that sanity would prevail among EU members and the trade concession would be extended to Pakistan by mid-April, as per schedule.
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