According to sources, Textile Minister Rana Farooq Saeed Khan failed to settle the dispute between the spinning units and textile garment exporters over the export of cotton and cotton yarn at a meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday. "No formula could be evolved and the meeting remained inconclusive," sources added. With a view to protecting the local market, the demand of imposing regulatory duty on the export of these two items also came from garment exporters, sources said.
The minister did his best to convince the parties but to no avail. The spinning millers said after three lean years with huge financial losses, they have now ceased an opportunity to earn through cotton and cotton yarn exports. Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Associations [Prgmea] Chairman Mohsin Ayub Mirza demanded of the President to promulgate an ordinance to stop the unabated export of raw materials.
Sources added that Mirza made it clear that the shortage of raw material will physically bring the value-added sector to a complete halt. He added that small manufacturers-cum-exporters would be ruined if the government did not act promptly.
He said this will trigger massive unemployment as the cotton and cotton yarn crisis is brining the value-added garment sector to a complete closure. Textile Minister Rana Farooq said under the open market mechanism, export of cotton and cotton yarn cannot be stopped officially. However, he said both the parties should come to a single point for a settlement with a win-win situation, sources said.
Rana said as minister he did whatever he could for the betterment of textile sector and solved several issues including disbursement of research and development fund, power crisis and other problems. It was also suggested that Rs 500 per bundle duty on export of cotton yarn be imposed. Garments exporters also tried to convince spinning millers to sell cotton and cotton yarn to them at global market rates, but failed to reach any agreement.
Mohsin Mirza criticised the export of cotton and cotton yarn to the rival countries in the global textile markets including China, India and Bangladesh. He said global textile garments trade stands at $375 billion while Pakistan's share is less than one percent, whereas in cotton trade Pakistan fulfils 30 percent of the world demand, which is creating problems for domestic manufacturers.
Pakistan Apparel Forum Chairman Javed Bilwani, Prgmea Chairman Mohsin Ayub Mirza, Pakistan Cotton Fashion Apparel Manufacturers and Exporters Association Chairman Dr Shahzad Arshad, Secretary Textile Ministry Waqar Masood and representatives of spinning mills and value-added textile sectors attended the meeting.