Shahzad Ahmed, Chairman APTMA, urged the Ministry of Textile Industry to
clarify by virtue of an announcement that, the regulatory duty of 15
percent will be withdrawn on July 26, 2010, and free trade mechanism
will be brought back as per its commitment. The rumour that APTMA has
agreed upon any restrictions on exports of yarn beyond July 26, 2010 was
also dismissed by Ahmed..

More so, Ahmed also pointed that, spinning mills were currently
incurring huge losses owing to minimal availability of cotton, which
would have been avoided that the quota or Regulatory Duty on yarn not
been levied. The imposition of the quota or duty created ambiguity,
which further prevented the spinning mills from importing cotton, even
during surplus supply..

Currently, owing to imposition of the 15 percent regulatory duty on
cotton yarn, spinning mill owners were forced to buy domestic cotton
from New Crop, at 10 – 15 percent higher rates than global and have to
also sell yarn at a lesser price than the global prices..

Ahmed concluded by saying that, Pakistan’s credibility was slowly
diminishing owing to frequent changes in policy and the chances of
running a business in the face of ambiguity is almost nil”

Date:7/13/2010

Source:www.dailytimes.com.pk