KARACHI, Jan 15: Pakistani business leaders fear key textile exports to the United States will suffer as a result of contentious new US immigration rules requiring Pakistanis to submit to rigorous checks.

“It will negatively hit our exports, especially textiles,” said Haroon Rashid, vice president of the Federation of Pakistani Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).

Pakistan was added last month to a list of 20 suspect countries whose male nationals, aged 16 and over, visiting the US must comply with stringent immigration checks. They are required to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service by February 16, provide fingerprints, proof of address, and undergo interviews.

Officials in Islamabad estimate that 50,000 Pakistanis living illegally in the US will be deported as a result, and are furious at Pakistan’s inclusion on the list.

Anxiety over the new measures has spread to exporters, and their fear is focussed on the all important trade in textiles, Pakistan’s biggest export commodity.

Rashid and other business leaders are worried that US importers will treat Pakistani exporters with scepticism and look to their competitors.

“Now, I believe, American buyers will be biassed against Pakistani exporters and our potential business will be vulnerable to our competitors like China and India,” he told AFP.

The US is Pakistan’s biggest trading partner. Pakistani exports to the US stood at $2.25 billion or 25 per cent of its total exports in the fiscal year 2001-02.

Exports in the first quarter of the current fiscal year showed their best ever performance for a first quarter, rising to $2.6 billion.

However textiles, which dominate the country’s total exports, may not keep the pace.

“We will face practical difficulties as our exporters will feel shy about visiting the US,” Anjum Saleem, chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, told AFP. He was pessimistic about the chances of any new deal.