Turkey's move to impose duty on textile: Pakistan to face $200 million loss, says Ikhtiar

Pakistan would suffer a $200 million loss in terms of lower textile exports consequent to Turkey's decision to impose 18 percent additional custom duty on imports from Pakistan. Adviser to the textile ministry and prominent textile industrialist, Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig told Business Recorder on Monday that the council of ministers, government of Turkey have agreed to enforce protective safeguard measures on import of Pakistani textiles to Turkey with effect from July 24, 2011.
As per the decision there will be an additional 18 percent custom duty on the import of denim fabric from Pakistan, raising the total duty to 24.5 percent. Dr Baig said, "Our exports of fabric to Turkey are worth $380 million while the total volume of trade between Turkey and Pakistan is $940 million. After the increase in custom duty, Pakistan would face a loss of $200 million."
He added that the main objective to impose additional custom duty is protection of domestic Turkish textile industry. The decision will be enforced from 120th day of the publication of the gazette ie July 24, 2011. Dr Baig urged Pakistani textile exporters to ensure that their shipment reaches Turkey before July 24, 2011 to avoid additional duty.
Turkey has decided to levy anti-dumping duty on textile imports from Pakistan, Bangladesh and China in an effort to protect its local industry. Dr Baig told this scribe, "In order to save 40 percent of our textile exports from becoming uncompetitive relative to Turkish products, the government began negotiations with the Turkish government, however it failed to convince the Turkish government not to impose the additional duty on Pakistani textile exports."
Complaints filed by the Turkish textile manufacturers did not meet the basic legal requirements, Dr Baig noted, but still the Turkish government has decided to protect its industry, he added. Dr Baig said, "There was a lot of pressure on the Turkish government to avoid safeguard duty. It was also feared that any duty may end up in the filing of a complaint at the WTO level and may cause problems for the Turkish government. It was therefore submitted that the complainants had failed to meet the legal requirements of Turkish law and therefore the complaint should be rejected."