'Trade policy focuses four factors to boost country's exports'

Faisalabad: Current Trade Policy targets four basic components of Productivity, Compliance, Competitiveness and Marketing to give boost to Pakistani exports, said Azhar Ali Chaudhry, Joint Secretary Ministry of Commerce, here on Saturday.

Addressing the members of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA), he underlined the importance of Textile Sector in national economy and said that before the WTO in Quota Regime Pakistan had an edge, which helped Pakistan to increase its exports. However, he said, we could not implement the competitiveness of Pakistani textiles in international market.

He pointed out that during his appointment as Commercial Counsellor in Italy it was noted that massive under invoicing by Pakistani exporters was creating difficulties for the Country and ultimately this led to imposition of anti-dumping duty on Pakistan by European Union.

He said that Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) was basically responsible for implementation of the Trade Policy and in case the same was not being done the Traders Associations should approach the Government for further action.

He said that the Ministry was diligently pursuing the Labour Skilled Development Programme to prepare the trained labours for the industry and the issue of standard compliance was also being pursued.

He said that the Trade Associations should give their feedback on implementation of Bilateral Trade Agreements and Foreign Trade Agreements (FTA) to enable the Government to make necessary changes in these agreements.

Responding to a question regarding disseminating the information about Bilateral Trade Agreements, he said the Ministry was preparing to hold a Seminar for this purpose.

Earlier in his address of welcome, Mian Zahid Aslam Chairman PTEA said that the Textile Industry was facing crisis due to heavy cost of production and other internal and external factors. About internal factors he pinpointed the heavy cost of raw material due to protective duty on polyester, fiber, dyes and chemicals.

High rate on Bank Credit and heavy bank service charges was others factors contributing towards the prevailing crisis. Overhead expenses like carriage inward and Federal, Provincial and Local taxes and levies were also responsible for high cost of production, he added.

Mian Azhar Majeed Sheikh, former Chairman PTEA cautioned the Government that if immediate remedial measures were not taken the Textile Sector would collapse. He said that urgent relief for survival of the Textile Industry was of prime importance at this time.