FAISALABAD (APP): Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain, senior vice president, Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), on Monday demanded that all duties and taxes on the import of cotton and yarn must be withdrawn in view of drastic decline in the production of domestic cotton.
Talking to local exporters after his return from China, he said that last year cotton was sown over 2,961,000 hectares of land, producing 139,600 cotton bales. This year, the area under cotton has been reduced to 291,700 hectares and the industry could gain only 1,007,500 cotton bales.
"Due to this sharp decline, its prices have also recorded upward trend which will critically enhance our production cost and Pakistani exporters will have to face a tough competition in the international markets," he added.
Alamdar Hussain said that Brexit had also affected Pakistan. Additional benefits of GSP-Plus have been reduced to almost nil as Britain was the main trading partners of Pakistan.
He said that Pakistani export to Britain is $1.6 billion. Similarly, the expatriate Pakistanis settled in the UK also send $1.8 billion remittance to Pakistan every year.