ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s textile exports could not picked up yet despite the grant of GSP Plus status by the European Union, as the country’s textile exports remained $1.097 billion in January against $1.059 billion in January last year, showing a meagre 3.6 percent increase.
As per details, Pakistan textile exports to the EU are expected to up by $1 billion per annum after the GSP status, effective from January 1, 2014. However it has not yet register any significant increase due to several challenges including shortage of energy.
According to officials, significant increase has been registered in orders from EU member countries after January 2014 following the grant of GSP Plus status. However, these orders are yet to be fulfilled due to the passage of a short span of time. In addition, energy shortage particularly power and gas remains a major impediment to increase the output. However, the industry is expecting a significant increase in exports from March and April 2014.
Officials further added exports of textile products witnessed positive growth of 7.59 percent during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The overall textile exports from the country recorded $8.035 billion during July-January (2013-14) as compared to $7.468 billion during July-January (2012-13). However, the increase in exports was mainly of raw materials instead of value-added products, they added.
