KARACHI: Overvalued rupee and rebates given by regional countries have eroded the benefits of GSP+ and made the country’s textile exports uncompetitive, said Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) S.M. Tanveer at a hurriedly called press conference on Thursday.

Earlier, Aptma decided to set up a committee to take up issues with the government as a 16 per cent fall in textile exports in March alarmed stakeholders.

The Aptma chairman said that rupee depreciated by 5pc over the past two years whereas Indian rupee and euro have been devalued by 1.25 and 26pc respectively.

“The most disturbing development which emerged from the latest exports figures, is an overall fall in textile exports including yarn, fabric as well as made-ups,” he said.

He lamented the dumping of cheap textile products like yarn, fabrics and made-ups in Pakistan.

“The high cost of raw material coupled with a 15pc higher cost of doing business than regional countries are factors crippling the largest industrial sector,” he bemoaned.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2015

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