Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) anticipates a sharp decline in apparel exports nearly to $3 billion this fiscal year by about 30 percent for the big economic downturn both EU and US undergo at present.
In an interview with Business Recorder, Central and Zonal Chairmen of Prgmea, Shehzad Salim and Atiq A Kochra see the country's textile export in trouble this fiscal year because of the key global markets are coping with the economic turmoil.
"The US, and Germany, UK, France and Spain in the EU bloc are all in the deep economic recessions these days, implicating the Pakistan's conventional textile exports decline along," they said, adding that the country's garments export was expected to remain $3 billion or just below, but not more than that for the current fiscal year. The last fiscal year export of garments, according to them, was $4.1 billion.
However, they ruled out disintegration of EU economic zone because it had consumed huge efforts of the member states and financial sacrifices by Germany and France at utmost level. They believed the EU economic zone crisis would have never hit Europe, if there had first off been set up fiscal management, instead. Similarly, they said, the US economic crisis had also hit Pakistan's textile exports this fiscal year as much as the EU had impacted them. "Shelves at big chain stores in the US are vacant for financial decline, and buyers stopped placing orders with Pakistan's exporters," they said.
Shehzad and Atiq said the EU buyers were cancelling orders of Pakistani exporters on tiny issues. "Buyers of the EU are also reluctant to place their orders, rather they reduced their buying by half as uncertain economic crisis which at present looms large," said the Prgmea Chairmen.
They supported the government's stance to give an MNF status to India, saying it would allow Pakistan to satisfy the neighbouring country's over a billion population with at least a 400 million middle class representation. "The EU and US markets are better but India and China would be a more rationale choice for businessmen to do trade with," they said, adding the government should also speed up its efforts to attain the GSP plus status for the country's economic growth.
To a question, they said the country could easily capitalise on the India's largest market, if the local industries from now started updating their products in line with the global standards. "However, textile sector of Pakistan is more advanced than that of the India, therefore, the country has no problems to compete with the Indian textile industry," they pointed out.
They said the government should understand the levels of both countries economies and then evolve a policy under the MNF status, adding there could be a protectionism policy to discourage the Indian products, which if felt making Pakistan's such items uncompetitive at home.