LAHORE: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association on Friday urged the government to announce the Strategic Trade Policy Framework immediately, saying an undue delay would push the textile industry exports further down.

“Textile exports have reduced by 14 per cent over the last six months and if this trend persists, it will lead to a reduction of $3.5 billion in exports by the year-end,” Aptma Punjab Zone Chairman Aamir Fayyaz said while addressing a press conference.

He pointed out that the cotton crop failure in Punjab had resulted in $1.5bn loss to farmers and total loss would reach $5bn with the addition of loss in exports.

Fayyaz said regional competitors including China, Bangladesh and India were filling up their coffers with foreign exchange earned out of exports and not the International Monetary Fund.

He said Aptma had put forward six points to the government for strengthening exports. The government should understand that a downward trend would be irreversible if continued unabated as the buyers would not return to us. He suggested the government should pass on the benefit of reduction in oil prices internationally.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2016