September 6, 2022: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and the International Cotton Association (ICA) on Tuesday agreed to enhance cooperation on the cotton needs of the textile industry in Pakistan.
The ICA President Mr Alex Hsu said the visit of the Association’s delegation was taking place under its outreach to Pakistan initiative. He was accompanied by Mr. Bill Kingdon, Managing Director, and Mr. Carl Peltzer, Director, ICA.
Chairman APTMA Abdul Rahim Nasir welcomed the delegation along with Hamid Zaman, Chairman Northern Zone, Kamran Arshad, Senior Vice Chairman and Secretary General Raza Baqir.
Mr Alex Hsu announced to hold a training seminar in Pakistan regarding the ICA rules in next month.
He said the objective of organizing the seminar would be to apprise the APTMA members about the cotton trade, challenges and possible solutions vis a vis issues being faced by Pakistani cotton buyers in the hands of suppliers.
The ICA delegation addressed the issues raised by the APTMA members relating to membership, dispute resolution and delayed shipments etc.
Foreign delegates updated the APTMA members about the best global practices in the cotton and textile trade being adopted by various countries to meet the new challenges.
He said, "We are looking forward to strengthening our ties regionally and building relationships with an important textile country in South Asia, having significant ICA membership and playing major international role in yarn and textile manufacturing.
"The purpose of our visit is to learn at first-hand how current market conditions, logistic challenges and retail demands are affecting cotton trade with reference to Pakistan."
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman APTMA Rahim Nasir offered the APTMA premises to hold the ICA training session. He also asked the ICA to set up its office at the APTMA premises for better coordination keeping in mind the growing demand of cotton in the years ahead.
He said cotton was an important cash crop for Pakistan and a major raw material for its textile industry, representing 75 percent in the fibre mix of the textile industry products, which provided livelihood to 25 million people in Pakistan.
According to him, the present demand for cotton in Pakistan was at least 13 million bales.
Highlighting the issues linked with cotton production in Pakistan, he said, cotton production in Pakistan had dropped to less than eight million bales this year as against estimated consumption of 13 million bales due to water shortage, fake pesticides and poor pest management.
Coupled with other fundamental issues, he added, the cotton import bill had jumped to around US$1.8 billion in FY 22.
He said Pakistan emerging as a cotton importing country but the importers were not fully aware of the ICA rules and their rights as buyers.
According to him, there was a general impression that the arbitration proceedings were biased in favour of the suppliers. Similarly, he added, there were also complaints regarding high arbitration fee for non-members of the ICA, he added.
Chairman Northern Zone Mr. Hamid Zaman said the issues like slow settlement process, short weighing, unviable solution of invoicing back where the seller was defaulter, deterrent penalty for wilful default, non-coverage of short weight under the compensation clause, and costlier charges discouraged the APTMA members to apply for the ICA membership.
He proposed the ICA delegation to establish ICA accredited testing labs in Pakistan. Also, he added, the ICA should carry out joint venture with APTMA for capacity building of its member mills.
Senior Vice Chairman Kamran Arshad presented a vote of thanks at the end of the meeting, which was followed by presenting of a memento to the visiting delegation by Chairman APTMA.
APP
Posted on:2022-09-07T00:18:41+05:00
34970
