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FAISALABAD: US licensor Walt Disney has dropped Pakistan from its list of ‘Permitted Sourcing Countries’ from April 1, sources in the textile industry confirmed on Wednesday.
The US entertainment giant banned any import from Pakistan as the country failed to satisfy the trading partner company of its intentions to improve what it considered “poor governance standards”.
“There is no ambiguity in the position taken by Disney. No shipment is permissible to any certified agent or vendor dealing in the brand of Walt Disney merchandise after April 30,” Azhar Majeed Sheikh, the chairman of Arzoo Textile Mills, told Dawn.
“Anyone (importer or exporter) found violating the ban will be liable to heavy penalties besides being blacklisted,” he said.
The US company’s decision has stripped Pakistan of $200-million exports of textile products.
The firm issued stiffer warning to Bangladesh when it decided to put Pakistan on its watch list because of repeated incidents of factory fires in textile garment units.
However, Bangladesh government managed to get a waiver by getting a placement in ILO/IFC ‘Better Work Programme’ that allows close monitoring of the country for social audit.
“It is an irony that Bangladesh managed to evade the ban and continues to trade with Disney, but the inefficient and ineffective doyens of commercial relations occupying cushy seats at the ministry and the Trade and Development Authority of Pakistan failed the business community,” a frustrated textile exporter commented.
“The people responsible for the fiasco should be taken to task if the government wishes to fare better on the governance scale,” another businessman said.
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Comments (50) Closed
Apr 03, 2014 11:27am
Please let the chairman Izhar Majeed Sheikh know that there is no date like "April 31" in any calendar of the world. He should correct it because it sounds embarrassing from a chairman of textile mills.
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Apr 03, 2014 12:20pm
It has been shameful to us for this type of ridiculous activity; our businessmen are the ambassador of our country, they should represent better gesture to their clients which developed better trade in future.
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Apr 03, 2014 01:10pm
I can still recall the best days when Pakistani Textile Industry. In the period of just 15-16 years major business moved to Bangladesh since Industry could not be able to adapt changes required by International Buyers and due to bad Governance by all past regimes. Now, it would be next to impossible for us to regain our share with no power/gas, high cost of production, in consistent quality, high finance costs and red tape in almost all the Govt. departments.
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Apr 03, 2014 01:31pm
Serves us right. We cannot take care of the working conditions of our factory workers. At-least the world stands up for them, if our own government can
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Apr 03, 2014 02:33pm
Few years back fire broke out in a textile factory in Karachi, many lives were lost. Did the government take any action against the management of the factory ?
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Apr 03, 2014 02:47pm
This is the result of no work ethics, professionalism and universal standardisation. Good that Walt Disney put a ban. If Pakistani firms cannot get their act together then they shouldn't get access to internationl trade.
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Apr 03, 2014 02:48pm
Ban Walt Disney movies in Pakistan in return. Simple.
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Apr 03, 2014 02:49pm
@asad:
And you think it has got to do with the so called working conditions! When we Pakistanis will grow up! Learn geo politics my friend. These are all the cheap attempts by those who hate Pakistan regardless.
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Apr 03, 2014 03:05pm
One gone, the others will soon follow.
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Apr 03, 2014 03:25pm
Sad commentary on working conditions in Pakistani Textile mills. Trade Unionism dead, Communism dead, Socialism dead, Mullahism alive !
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Apr 03, 2014 03:29pm
These Businessmen have to understand that First thing a customer looks is Quality , Price and Delivery period commitments if you can excel in these then the customer is willing to bend lot of their rules.
We are a regular importer of Work Garments from Pakistan, trust me the problems we are facing with Pakistani factories is many times more then anywhere else we are importing from. first of all their are always quality issues, the delivery time is never ever met, the packing is very bad. only thing they are better are is prices that i think is due to the high conversion rates. It is sometimes so frustrating at times dealing with them that you sometimes want to just cancel everything with them, specially the factories from Sialkot are the worst.
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Apr 03, 2014 04:28pm
I think we should be happy that Bangladesh has been successful in avoiding any such ban, and Bangladesh will also gain from our loss of $200 million business. After all, Bangladesh is our Muslim Brothers. Our Government's laziness and bad governance has benefitted another Muslim country. We should be proud of such acts. The Government ministry responsible for losing textile business should be awarded some kind of medal for benefitting Muslim Brothers outside Pakistan.
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Apr 03, 2014 04:30pm
This is no surprise. We have had almost 6 years of elected governments and the business community has been losing even the existing business. I wonder who is better. Someone who is facing trial for treason or these people who are incapable, incompetent and unwilling to do anything for the country?
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Apr 03, 2014 04:39pm
@Taimoor Khan:
I came here for a short visit to my family. Last month I went to a nadra office to see that ppl were made to stand in the sun since there was no space inside offices. Wake up dude.. Open ur own eyes. It's ppl like you who encourage the treatment they get from everyone from the government to anyone in power in this country with no civil rights. With awaam like you who will only blame India and America, no wonder things are the way they are. What happened to the factory owners who were responsible for this. Oh wait, they went Scott free due to bribe and political connections. Yet ppl like you see foreign governments guilty instead of your own governments...well my friend whether you like it or not, the whole world thankfully doesn't work that way.
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Apr 03, 2014 04:58pm
This is most probably a failure of the government in providing enough resources to the manufacturing sector.. and overall failure in good governance.
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Apr 03, 2014 05:44pm
@Romana Khan:
That's why he is Chairman, and now you know, why Pak textiles lost Waltz Disney market.
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Apr 03, 2014 06:32pm
This is nothing new we have tried for the last 15 years to get permission to import Fruit Mangos and Kinos from Pakistan and we were told that this Permission is given at State level.Finally the Powers that be moved because it involved free trips to Washington, and partly thanks to Hilary Clinton, they did get here. They were here to officially request for export of fruit to the USA but you know what they did they just asked for mangos and dropped all the other fruits because they had to ensure that they could come here repeatedly. What a shame, every one involved in that, and just like this Textile debacle should be fired.
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Apr 03, 2014 06:48pm
Pakistan is suffering an image crisis globally.
Instead of textile, Pakistan might export Taliban-Laden toys, video games to USA / Walt Disney.
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Apr 03, 2014 06:57pm
@Romana Khan:
why is pakistan moving backward?, because of such incompetent people who are appointed without merit
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Apr 03, 2014 07:05pm
I am not surprised.
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Apr 03, 2014 07:24pm
When you hire an incompetent operator or administrator, this has to happen. Look at the progressive thinkers of Bangladesh. When they received the warning from EU and Disney after the factory fires. The did two things, namely, academic fact finding and correction of problem and public relation / damage control. Dhaka university civil engineering department surveyed all the buildings & sent recommendations to correct and the marginal buildings were demolished. The export minister was dispatched to every country and buyers of the world for grace period. The Pakistanis never has taken charge of any thing just complain. This is national loss of 200,000 million dollars export. Shame on the Pakistani administration.
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Apr 03, 2014 07:27pm
This is really bad news,,,,this will make huge impact on pakistan textile industry...I am afraid,,,,Many major brands world wide may follow the same
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Apr 03, 2014 07:35pm
Why don't we start trading with India(sign MFN asap) and export all the textile to India. of course, our ego precedes sane thought!!
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Apr 03, 2014 07:37pm
Pakistan will only learn if a danda hits them. Good job Disney. Pakistan has a lot of opportunities but we should learn and adapt. There is a need of fresh wind in every management level.
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Apr 03, 2014 08:00pm
Why talk about Bangladesh, when they are complaining about conditions in your country? Why not send someone to Bangladesh to find out what they did to escape this ban? Yea, you can ban Walt Disney movies like you banned Facebook, Twitter etc. See if they care.
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Apr 03, 2014 08:11pm
@Taimoor Khan: Pakistan business can't fight and win the battle with Micky Mouse either
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Apr 03, 2014 08:26pm
In Pakistan people at the helm of the affairs think that they will always remain well to do and their businesses will progress forever regardless of nation's immense poverty and all losses to National exchequer but they does not know when one day they have no room to rescue their necks.....
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Apr 03, 2014 08:29pm
Government is reposnible? what about the fat and low IQ businessmen and industrialists, who only make money because of labor exploitation, tax evasion and subsidies.
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Apr 03, 2014 08:38pm
@Taimoor Khan:
Oh yeah and that will hit them hard.....you think so? By the way what Walt Disney movies are played in the theaters?
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Apr 03, 2014 08:45pm
@Cuteboy:
Before jumping on this remark, first make sure may be it is newspaper mistake . These exporter are the backbone of the country bring foreign exchange. The only thing if you go abroad you see Pakistani textile export and rice produce by our Landlords . It is time to change our thinking about these people who working hard with against all odds.
I see big difference between BD and Pakistan is Secular BD and Islamic republic of Pakistan. Even we trust secular minded countries to Islamic Countries.
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Apr 03, 2014 09:20pm
pakistan should learn from bangladesh in every aspect ,
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Apr 03, 2014 09:20pm
@Aisha:
absolutely agree with you. I think our friend Mr Taimoor is living in a dream world.
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Apr 03, 2014 09:45pm
@Taimoor Khan:
That won't even be a millionth of a drop in the ocean for Disney. I visited Pakistan a year ago. I couldn't believe the corruption, deceit, lying, pretence of being religious, etc., at every level of society. Forget the filthy rich "leaders" and all politicians, even a peanut vendor on the street will try to cheat you. Yet everyone runs off to the mosque, especially on Fridays and at daily prayer times. It is the most obscene kind of deception. You speak out about these problems and quickly you will be considered anti-Islamic or anti-Pakistani. The biggest enemy of Pakistan are Pakistanis.
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Apr 03, 2014 10:23pm
Oh wait, our Government is busy in negotiations with Taliban!
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Apr 04, 2014 12:34am
In gist, it is the difference between doing business with "Mickey Mouse" versus BEING "Mickey Mouse"... In other words (contrarily, viz-a-viz the prev statement), being "funny" as oppossed to indulging in "funny business" ... I will leave the Pakistani Textile Industry to figure out exactly WHICH part did they fit into viz-a-viz the Walt Disney Corp...
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Apr 04, 2014 01:26am
We should fire Pakistani commercial consulate in LA for this. But wait, most likely he or she is brother or nephew of someone BIG in Pakistan and here to enjoy time and most likely spending time to extend stay here instead of doing what suppose to be done that is taking care of Pakistani interest.
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Apr 04, 2014 01:28am
@Mohib Qureshi:
You said it all. Stupid Pakistanis! What Pakistan needs is a modern day Adolph Hitler. Or the return of Musharaf.
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Apr 04, 2014 02:48am
@Taimoor Khan:
yes we should keep the reactionary stance and isolate ourselves further. No need to improve ourselves
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Apr 04, 2014 03:21am
@Taimoor Khan:
Just blame others and rely on conspiracy theory. It will not do any good to Pakistan.
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Apr 04, 2014 03:21am
It's mean I won't see MADE IN PAKISTAN any more on textile product but India. Once I bought a towel from Walmart and later on I found it is made in Pakistan. I was so happy and I told my wife about that big discovery. Mostly we go OLD NAVY to buy garments and almost all t-shirts are MADE IN INDIA over there.
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Apr 04, 2014 04:49am
one after another such things are coming up and we have to over come our deficiencies before blaming anyone.. there are legendary examples related to talent present in our country but due to miss management and corrupt political culture things are near to doom
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Apr 04, 2014 06:57am
I live only 5 miles from Disneyland and its outlet stores. The Pakistani Consul General in Los Angeles has never inter acted with the large Pak Community here to promote anything. PM Nawaz Sharif is running his business in London and a steel mill in Saudi Arabia.In Karachi and Islamabad govt functionaries are inapproachable.
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Apr 04, 2014 05:54pm
Our rulers are currently enjoying Pakistan at the cost of its citizen.... "Iqtidar k Nashe m Behosh ho gaye Hain".....................
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Apr 05, 2014 07:59am
If we South Asians had any sense, we would be trading with each other and gaining strength. We are economically complementary and raw material produced within our land can both be processed and consumed here itself... But artificial borders and our misplaced egos prevent this and Pakistan leads the way in this petty one upmanship at great cost to its own people as well as the region.
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Apr 05, 2014 12:42pm
Maybe The Government would like to Ban Disney Name and Products from entering Pakistan till change their policy towards us.
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Apr 05, 2014 01:04pm
Kuwait bans pakistani nationals for any visa
disney bans imports
the list will grow and grow because of the poor governance of the rulers
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Apr 05, 2014 08:45pm
@Taimoor Khan:
It won't hurt Walt Disney at all
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Apr 06, 2014 04:06am
There should not be any surprise in Walt Disney's decisions. Pakistan has an image of a failed State all over the world including Pakistan itself.
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Apr 06, 2014 12:46pm
@Shahid Khan:
Shahid can you keep religion out...my muslim brothers!!
my own people and stakeholders are good for nothing, I do not which sayings or examples of our beloved prophet are people following in the country...
At least can we follow the minimum human and professional requirements...
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Apr 06, 2014 03:10pm
@Taimoor Khan:
Not many people like Pakistan. You should thank your God they did not ban the Pakistanis.
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