Declining fabrics' exports: President and Prime Minister's help sought to prevent joblessness

Textile exporters have appealed to President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to urgently take cognisance of sharply declining exports of fabrics, in failing which they feared millions of skilled workforce could become jobless in near future.
Addressing a well-attended meeting of the Executive Committee of Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) here on Thursday, Rana Arif Tauseef, Chairman, PTEA pointed out the dangerous decline in exports of fabrics from the country.
He said that exports of cloth in July 2005 were to the tune of 302 millions square meter but at the end of November 2005 the exports declined to 177 millions sq meter. Similarly, the value of exports, which was 207 million dollars in July 2005, dwindled to 154 million dollars in November 2005.
Pin pointing the causes for this steep fall in cloth exports, he said the cost of production had increased due to intermittent raise in rates of electricity, gas and petroleum products. Furthermore, the rates of commercial credit and export refinance in the country have become uneconomical.
Elaborating, he said that commercial banks spread was very high in the country while the banks were paying 1.5 percent profit on deposits. They were charging above 10 percent on commercial loans. With such a high bank spread the industry could ill afford to be viable.
He further stated that transportation and sea freight charges were also big burden on the cost of exportable goods. Inflationary trend in the economy was also wreaking pressure on the cost of textile exports, he continued.
Among the external factors, causing depression in exports, were anti-dumping duty of 13.1 percent on Pakistani exports in Europe and withdrawal of 12 percent gsp concession in USA and EU; making the Pakistani exports 25 percent costlier than India and China.
It was, therefore, natural that the foreign buyers were diverting their orders to India and China, he added. Arif Tauseef warned the concerned quarters that if remedial measures were not taken immediately to stem the rot the exports of fabrics could be collapsed the same way as the knitwear sector was already facing the crisis.