SIALKOT, Nov 16: WTO laws expert and legal consultant to the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (on trade remedy laws), Ms Huma Fakhar, has urged hosiery manufacturers to prepare themselves to meet global challenges.

Speaking at a seminar — Market and product development for hosiery/garments industry— organized by the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (North Zone), Sialkot, on Saturday night, Ms Fakhar said that under the WTO trade laws quotas like non-tariff barriers (NTBs), tarrif barriers (TBs) and technical barriers to trade (TBTs) would soon be implemented globally.

She said that now the investment modalities had changed due to which Pakistan’s textile industry would face “big problems as we still have been investing on infrastructure without having primary information and without knowing the export potential.”

She stressed the need of making investment in new forms of quotas like NTBs, TBs and TBTs.

Ms Huma Fakhar said the US would soon ink a number of free trade agreements with Singapore and Chili.

She said that awareness about WTO’s trade laws was vital for the survival of export-oriented cottage industries. She called upon the WTO to establish its “certification centres” in Sialkot in collaboration with Sialkot business community, as the mere ISO certification would not help manufacturers and exporters to compete in the global markets in future.

PHMA central chairman Khurram Tariq welcomed the WTO trade certification proposal.

PHMA (Sialkot region) chief Arshad Javaid Sandal urged the government to establish a textile college and a well-equipped textile lab in Sialkot.