Pakistan resumes cotton imports from India - government official

[Dzz]

Pakistan has resumed cotton imports from its top supplier India after suspending them for few days, government and industry officials told Reuters on Thursday.

The resumption in the cotton trade will help India in exporting surplus, while Pakistan will benefit from cheaper supplies from the neighbouring country.

Last month Pakistan suspended cotton imports from India, saying shipments failed to fulfil phyto-sanitary certification, threatening the $822 million-a-year trade.

"Our move was portrayed as if we had banned imports," Imran Shami, director general of Pakistan’s Plant Protection Department (DPP) told Reuters, so we have started re-issuing permits, he added. Authorities are still working on the certification issue.

Indian traders have signed contracts to export 350,000 bales to Pakistan since the start of the marketing year on Oct.1. Out of that nearly 300,000 bales for shipments in December and January were stuck after Pakistan suspended imports.

"Since Pakistan has started issuing import permits, we are hopeful that buyers will fulfil the contracts," said an exporter based in the western state of Gujarat.

In 2015/16, Pakistan surpassed Bangladesh to become India's biggest cotton buyer, accounting for 40 percent of exports.

"Pakistan still needs to import at least 2 to 2.5 million bales. Resumption in trading will help both the countries," said Chirag Patel, chief executive officer of Indian exporter Jaydeep Cotton Fibers.

Pakistan's cotton consumption is pegged around 15 million bales, while it is likely to produce around 10.5 million bales, Patel said.
Last year, Pakistan bought 2.7 million bales from India and supported Indian cotton prices at a time when China was cutting imports, traders said.





http://in.reuters.com/article/india-pakistan-cotton-idINKBN13X1HD

 

[Dzz]

so much for their self enforced ban

https://defence.pk/threads/amid-tension-pakistan-stops-import-of-cotton-from-india.463462/

 

[marbella]

every Pakistan India news needs a day or two to be declared false or true. It may be propaganda by media.

 

[cloud4000]

Why would any country trade with another country that is trying to do you harm? It makes absolutely no sense. I thought India and Pakistan are in a state of war...yet there's trade still going on. I have the inclination to call it a phony war.

What a weird world we are living in.

 

[Lavrentiy]

Last season's cotton crop was more than 40% below the expectations (due to floods and bad weather) which had led to a deficiency. It was obvious that cotton had to be imported.

Cyber patriots and arm-chair jingoists can fume all they want but the weaving mills have to run their spindles. Conservatives belonging to the salaried middle class can never comprehend that commercial interests for the businessmen are above every thing else.

These close-minded bigots do not even realize that their own freaking salaries come from commercial activity either directly or indirectly through government taxation. Confrontation with India is no reason for stopping any trade whatsoever.

 

[jha]

LAHORE: Pakistan on Wednesday lifted an ‘undeclared’ ban on imports of ginned cotton from India, pledging to strictly implementing all phytosanitary and other conditions governing the fibre’s imports on future incoming shipments via surface or sea.

Earlier, the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research put cotton imports from India on hold through Wahga and Karachi port from Nov 23, saying the shipments did not fulfil phytosanitary conditions.

However, traders at that time claimed that rising border tensions between the two neighbours had prompted Islamabad to impose the ban on Indian cotton.

A trader blames Food Minister Sikandar Bosan for creating hurdles
A trader told Dawn that the DPP had started issuing permits for importing cotton from India via Wahga.

But the DPP has also made it clear to importers that only the consignments free from cotton seeds will be accepted and allowed into the country, he added.

He said the department required production of phytosanitary certificate issued by authorities in the country of origin declaring that the consignments are free from pests and disease and were fumigated for 48 hours before loading.

“Besides, the importers are required to obtain import permit 14 days prior to the arrival of the cotton consignments,” he said.

Traders said none of these conditions is new. “But the fact remains that the department has never implemented or threatened to implement them to the letter ever like now,” a textile factory manager said.

“If implemented strictly, we will not be able to import cotton from any country in the world, let alone India, because no consignment is completely free from cotton seeds.”

Last year, Pakistan imported ginned cotton worth more than $800 million from India which accounted for two-thirds of India’s cotton exports.

Traders are expecting cotton imports from India and elsewhere to surge this year in view of the anticipated shortfall in the domestic crop.

The government expects cotton output to remain close to 10.5m bales of 170kg each against a reduced industry demand of 14m bales owing to widespread factory closures in Punjab because of higher energy prices.

A trader blamed Sikandar Bosan, the minister of National Food Security and Research, for creating hurdles in the way of import of Indian cotton. “He doesn’t realise that hurdles in imports from India will hurt textile exports and slow down economic growth.”

Last year, a drop of 27pc in domestic cotton output shaved 0.5pc off gross domestic product growth rate, according to the budget for the ongoing year. “Any delay in execution of the contracts with Indian cotton exporters will allow them an opportunity to raise their prices or cancel the deals,” the trader said. “That will not be beneficial for our industry or exports at a time when our crop output is falling far short of our requirement.”

http://www.dawn.com/news/1301105/govt-lifts-undeclared-ban-on-indian-cotton-imports


Interesting to see traders blaming govt for creating hurdles in importing cotton from India... Why buy so much cotton from India when other sources are available ? Whatever happened to nationalism and pride ?

 

[saurav]

Sense prevailing or, pressure from traders? Optics not good anyway.Pakistani Govt has given a full toss to opposition.

 

[abc123xyx]

anyhow , there will be a competition between china and pakistan on cotton import from india.....

 

[Stag112]

IPL, cricket, issues with world governing bodies or foreign boards concerning hockey, cricket or squash but blamed on India by army run pakistani boards - so many pakistani posters ready to trade blows.

But a thread about Pakistan blocking trade or roads etc - crickets.

I have to wonder what are priorities of Pakistanis? What do they think is more important to the welfare of our common masses? Or do we only have army fanboys from army families from pakistan on the forum?

 

[Cherokee]

800 Million USD worth of revenue from Pakistan for just cottons is not bad .

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Army should step in and put a complete halt of this illegal arrival of low quality stuff from india if our forigne minister can't be allowed to speak in public meeting , the cotton can sit and remain in india and burn

 

[Tamilnadu]

I thought Pakistan exports cotton.

 

[Anish]

 

[Kal Muah]

I thought Pakistan exports cotton.

Pakistan was a major textile exporter. They suddenly lost in producing cotton with India and finished textile goods with Bangladesh. Its very rare now a days to see Pakistan exporting any goods or products.

 

[AntiToxic]

Look at this .. After so much of internet bravado...........


ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will allow the import of life-saving drugs from India but only on the condition that the drugs are used for non-commercial purposes.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held on November 23 and chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The cabinet authorised the commerce ministry to allow the import of such medicines on “a case-by-case basis”.

Previously, the prime minister’s approval was required for allowing the import of items listed on the ‘negative list’.

Officials said the cabinet was informed that several donor-funded health programmes were being run in Pakistan for eliminating various diseases.

The government, officials said, also received in kind support and donations from donors such as the Global Fund (GF) and Global Drug Facility (GDF) for running such programmes.

Most accredited anti-TB drugs, the government was informed, were being manufactured in India and many medicines of Indian origin were on the ‘negative list’ under the current import regime.

Earlier, securing permission for importing any item on the negative list was difficult because it required the approval of the prime minister after getting the concurrence of a high-level committee headed by the commerce minister. The attendance of the secretaries of commerce, industries and production and the FBR chairman was also required in the meeting.

The cabinet was urged to authorise the commerce ministry to allow non-commercial imports of medicines listed on the ‘negative list’ and third-party (such as WHO) donations from India on case-to-case basis.

It is learnt that when the proposal was submitted to the prime minister, he wanted it to be placed before the cabinet or the Economic Committee of the Cabinet since the proposal entailed a policy shift.

The ministries of industries and production, national health, service regulations and coordination divisions and FBR had supported the idea

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1258027/govt-allows-import-life-saving-drugs-india/