Pakistan’s value-added textile export sector has urged Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi to abolish all duties and taxes on cotton yarn import to help earn foreign exchange and reduce
trade gap that touched $18 billion during the July-December period of fiscal
2017-18. Cotton yarn is not easily available in the domestic market owing to
low cotton yield.
The sector has the largest share in the total
textile exports of Pakistan and cotton, according to Muhammad Jawed Bilwani,
chairman of Pakistan Apparel Forum and chief coordinator of the country’s value-added textile export sector.
Bilwani said a 30 per cent rise in cotton yarn
prices has made the value-added textile export sector uncompetitive in the
international market. There is a fear that exporters may fail to meet export
orders booked six months back if immediate attention is not paid by the
government to the issue, Pakistani media reports quoted him as saying. Globally import of raw material
is allowed duty free while export of the same is restricted to benefit value
addition to earn foreign exchange, he added.