Cotton, yarn import: Apparel forum terms cabinet decision a ‘disappointment’

KARACHI: The country’s struggling value-added textile export sector on Thursday showed disappointment over the federal cabinet’s decision not to permit cotton yarn import from hostile India. The ECC had floated a proposal to the government to permit the suspended import of cotton yarn from India. Pakistan Apparel Forum chairman Javed Bilwani called the cabinet move of rejecting trade from the neighboring nation ‘disappointment’.

Advisor Commerce Razak Dawood’s recommendation to permit the import of cotton yarn from India is a realistic thinking which is also the need of time, he said adding the Cabinet should accord serious considerations to the issue.

Textile Export sector, in wake of unavailability of cotton yarn, is continuously demanding Advisor Commerce Razak Dawood to allow import of duty free cotton yarn from worldwide including India, he said.

He said rejection of ECC proposal by cabinet has conveyed a negative message to foreign buyers as cotton yarn is not available on the local market for manufacturing value-added textiles.

Prices of cotton yarn in country have been further increased after the rejection of ECC proposal by Cabinet, he added.

“The Government must take responsibility to ensure availability of cotton yarn in country if do not want to allow its import from India,” Bilwani said.

If cotton yarn is not made available to textile exporters, export orders shall not be timely completed, hence exports will also decline.

Import of cotton yarn from India is a dire need of the local industry, since the country has fallen drastically short of the key commodity, he said. Textile Export Industry appeals to the cabinet to reconsider, in the national interest, the ECC proposal to allow import of cotton yarn from the neighboring.

“Medicine is imported from India. Should not the government also allow import of cotton yarn,” he asked.

“In current year cotton produce reduced to 40 percent comparing to 15 million bales in 2014-15 cotton produce decline 50 percent this year,” he said. Amid Covid-19, the sea freights grew to 700 percent and goods previously reaching global markets in 25 days now taking 105 days, which is highly inconvenient to the exporters, Bilwani said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021