Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) has urged the government to send a team to European Union (EU) for explaining the concerns of Pakistani exporters arising out of the recent EU proposal on duty concession. In a statement, president of MCCI Shahid Naseem Khokhar said Pakistan should also visit European Apparel and Textile Confederation and all other relevant people in this regard.
Khokhar said EU has now set up much tighter restrictions on 75 items initially approved for Pakistan duty free. It has made it far less effective and beneficial. EU has also reduced the concession period from three to two years, following pressure from local European textile industry and third year after reassessment.
"They have further placed restriction with just 20 percent growth allowed in a year or we lose duty free status on some of the top items in list of 75 items where we were expecting serious growth like women jeans, fabrics, towels, socks, etc," he said. MCCI president pointed out that it is very much likely that we will be able to surpass this 20 percent growth in six to eight months of first year and lose our duty free status as the manufacturers of respective field of garments, towels, etc will be concentrating on particular duty free items in the list of 75 items.
For example, he added, woven garment manufacturers and foreign buyers both will be concentrating to buy more women jeans than men's jeans due to duty free, etc. He said Pakistan should insist that EU must stick to the initial proposal of 75 items without any restriction for three years and not accept anything less than this.
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