The government' interference in the free textile trade will affect the country' exports badly, Pakistan Yarn Merchant Association (PYMA) said Friday. The export of the textile products and yarn will be affected if the Textile Ministry tries to disturb the free market mechanism, a senior member of PYMA, Khalid Rafi said. He said yarn sector was already facing hardship in the form of higher regulatory duties and its export has come down to around 53 percent and is still a major foreign exchange earning segment of the textile sector, he added. He said the Textile Ministry should continue to maintain the textile policy and any sort of interference would damage the whole fibre of this sector. He said, If the government wanted to support the downstream textile sector it should have given it from its own pocket and not at the cost of the spinning industry. He said, ??Only 25 percent of the yarn is exported while the remaining is always sufficient for the value-added apparel sector in the country. He said there are around 415 spinning units in the country -out of which about 172 are working in Kotri, Hyderabad, Nooriabad Industrial Estate and Karachi. We are going to lose grip on the yarn exports and will face a huge loss of export orders besides unemployment in the spinning and yarn-manufacturing units in the country, he added. He said all kinds of textile exports would also jump by Rs 400 million if the Textile Ministry keeps away from the affairs of value added sector. The government should continue the textile policy as the local industry is moving along the international market, and in return the cotton growers will get Rs 200 billion more than they earned in the previous cotton year, cotton analyst Shakeel Ahmad said. He said the spinning industry was not getting any sort of support from the government in the shape of subsidy or cheaper export refinance as the value-added textile sector has been enjoying over the years. Ahmad said the value-added textile sector could compete in the export arena, which was already enjoying a number of facilities such as export refinance, LTFF and LTF-EOP, which was not available to the spinning industry. The yarn sector believes in free trade and is not in favour of any sort of restriction on exports of yarn and imposition of the regulatory duty, it will hamper the export, Ahmad maintained. He said in open market economy, there should not be any ban on export or import except for the ban on import of luxury items. The spinning industry is operating and also competing in the export market even though about 25 percent of the shortage of raw cotton is met through imports. Total requirement of spinning industry is about 15.5 million bales (170 kg) per annum whereas average production of cotton in the country is 12 to 12.5 million bales. The negative attitude of the ministry would badly hurt the spinning sector, which is in its revival stage after three years of massive shocks due to shortage of raw material, high cost of doing business and international recession.

source: Dailytimes