ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Textiles, on the request of the textile industry representatives, has taken up the issue of waving off 42.2 per cent safeguard measures duty on Pakistan’s apparel imports from Turkey as the duty caused cut the country’s textile exports by 50 per cent to around $500 million from $1 billion.
Textile industry association, in a meeting, pointed out that bilateral trade with Turkey had grown to $1billion mark in 2010-11 but was reversed after the imposition of safeguard measures duty since August 2011.
Government is already in the process of striking trade agreements in software insurance and banking services, as both the countries are engaged in talks over Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
The Turkish industrialists say that their textile industry has no threat from Pakistan but still it has placed extra Customs duty on apparel imports from Pakistan. Garment industry says that the original Customs duty on garment products, including denim, martial arts uniforms and home textiles in Turkey was 9.2 per cent, which has been increased to 52 per cent. This increase in duty by Turkey has blocked apparel industry exports to Turkey.
It is worth mentioning that Pakistan’s imports from Turkey showed a small decrease from $176.26 million in 2010-11 to $174.63 million which was only one per cent decrease.
