KARACHI, Dec 13: The Towel Manufacturers’ Association of Pakistan (TMA) has asked the government to take up the issue of discrepancies in the US Customs data in category 363 (towels) with the US ambassador in Islamabad.

In a statement issued to the press here on Friday, the patron-in-chief of TMA S M A Rizvi said despite the fact that it had been proved to the US Customs that they had made wrong entries at their end but still they have not given credit on these discrepancies.

He further said this category (363) has been put under embargo by the US Customs with effect from December 3, 2002, without any justification and fault on our part.

Rizvi was highly critical of the attitude of the US government towards resolving Pakistan’s problems and said that for reasons not known the US government in spite of its promises to give larger market access to Pakistani products have dismayed general public.

What to talk about market access, he said, the US is even not ready to give us credit of the discrepancies in the US data which is only about 10 per cent in category 363.

Besides, embargo has been already imposed on bedlinen and sheetings etc., and if the US does not come to our help we are afraid that hundreds of industrial units will be closed down and the labours will come on roads creating law and order problems, he added.

Rizvi urged Commerce Minister Humayun Akhter Khan to take up the issue with the US ambassador in Islamabad and save the industry.