Shipment of Indian cotton to Pakistan: Chairman Aptma expresses concern over delay

Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Gohar Ejaz has expressed serious concerns over dilly-dallying tactics of the Indian government in shipment of one million cotton bales to Pakistan terming it a sheer negation of the free market mechanism.
It may be noted that the Indian government's intervention to the free market mechanism has already earned serious criticism from the international community.
He said India has produced 32.5 million cotton bales this year with 10 percent upward growth comparing with last fiscal year. However, he added, the Indian government, vide Notification No. 12(RE-2010)/2009-14 dated 16th December 2010, has made amendments in earlier notifications to distort the free market mechanism. According to the amendment, the contracts for export of cotton shall be registered with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade prior to shipment. Also, clearance of cotton consignments by customs should be after verifying that the contracts have been registered.
He said it was an irony that the Indian Ministry of Commerce & Industry informed that the modalities of registration for export of cotton would be notified separately, once the balanced quantity of cotton, to be exported, is ascertained.
The chairman Aptma said due to this sudden intervention to the free market mechanism by the Indian government one million cotton bales of Pakistani importers were stuck up. They entered signed agreements with Indian cotton exporters well before the controversial notification.
He said the controversial notification was tantamount to backing out of Indian cotton exporters from their commitment with Pakistani cotton importers.
The Aptma chief pointed out that the Indian government has also robbed the Indian cotton growers by this intervention simply to support its textile industry procuring cotton at 30 percent less than international price.
He also expressed his concerns how the Indian government can negotiate with the European Union for market access in the form of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) after distorting the free market mechanism.
He said the EU has already imposed anti-subsidy duty on India for introducing Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) besides subsidies and disbursing hundreds of billions of rupees for subsidised investment in the textile sector.
The chairman Aptma has appealed to both the Pakistan and the Indian governments to take up the issue on priority basis in the larger interest of two Asian textile giants and let the pending cotton shipment be released to Pakistan in the bilateral trade interest of two countries.