The chairman of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), Abdul Rasheed Khan, has rejected the restriction of by government on yarn export up to 50 million kg a month, and offer of 2 percent rebate to yarn manufacturers for supplying their product to the local downstream industry, and said, "We would challenge such restrictions in a court of law, besides submitting a petition to the Director of WTO in Pakistan for violating the free trade regime under international law.
Talking to newsmen here on Saturday he said that imposing of ban on cotton and cotton yarn, or restricting it to a particular volume, would be tantamount to suicidal attack on cotton economy. He said that a meeting of the Cabinet's inter-ministerial committee on textile, textile minister Farooq Saeed Khan, along with the minister of food and agriculture and secretary commerce had ruled out complete ban on yarn export but announced quantitative restrictions on the commodity. This meeting, according to him, suggested that yarn exporters could only export a maximum quantity of 300 million kg in the six months to June (50 m kg a month) and the calculation was done considering average export of the commodity over the past three years. The standing committees of the upper and lower houses of parliament had, the other day, recommended to the Cabinet committee on textile to impose a ban on the export of yarn when it crossed 550 million kg.
The PCGA Chairman said that the food and agriculture ministry and the textile ministry did not support ban on yarn export while the commerce ministry is in favour of providing cheap raw material for the local value-added sector. The committee had also recommended that yarn export should not go beyond 550 million kg against average export of 525 million kg over the last three years.