Plea to reject EU Pakistan waiver
EURATEX, the European umbrella Confederation of the Apparel and Textile industries has been objecting the introduction of a Pakistan waiver (initiated under the impression of the 2010 floods – that would undermine the interests of a whole sector in the European economy since it would free textile products exported from Pakistan to the EU from duties
The main argument of EURATEX President Alberto Paccanelli is that “our competitors in Pakistan obtain extensive government support in the form of drawback of taxes that can be up to 4 % of the FOB value of exports; loans at reduced rates; reimbursements on social security taxes and incentives schemes that favour the creation of large export companies”.
He wrote also a letter to the members of the European Parliament – where the voting on the waiver will take place – to reject the Pakistan waiver because “Pakistan’s textile and clothing industry is highly competitive and the main exporters to the EU are state-of-the-art companies with turnovers over EUR 200 million (thus topping the average size for European SMEs) benefitting from the large financial government support. The waiver will exclusively be beneficial to these companies and not the poor population suffering from the floods in 2010”. Euratex members account for a turnover of EUR 179 billion, an employment of 1,834 million people and 146000 companies.