Search Results for: Pakistan

INTRODUCTION

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a reassessment of the model of relying on one or two outsourcing locations. It has demonstrated that when there is a major disruption caused by an emergency as serious as a pandemic, shipping and industrial processing can be disrupted.…

Fraud in the global halal food sector is emerging as a widespread problem. A series of scandals have rocked the industry worldwide, and shone a spotlight on the difficulty of eliminating non-halal practices from increasingly large and complicated food supply chains. …

Spain, which in the early Middle Ages was part of Islamic state called Al-Andalus – remembered as a golden age of Spanish tolerance and reason – has finally started to seriously play to win in the global halal market, through tourism and exports.…

Spain has been expanding its halal tourism and food sales, as it leverages its geographical proximity to Muslim countries in north Africa to provide travel and accommodation services.

In the CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2021, by CrescentRating & Mastercard, Spain climbed six positions to the 16th in the top non-Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) destinations (https://www.crescentrating.com/reports/global-muslim-travel-index-2021.html).…

Halal experts and animal welfare activists around the world are seeking common ground on how to keep and slaughter animals in the most humane ways possible. Halal certification systems that forbid pre-slaughter stunning as haram is becoming an increasingly acute issue for countries with strong animal welfare culture traditions and growing Muslim populations.…

A protracted delay in announcement of a long-awaited government Pakistan Textile Policy 2020-25, despite drafts being debated for more than a year, is causing unrest and disappointment within the country’s textile business community. They say investors are being deterred from sinking much needed money into the country’s textile industry in the absence of any clear sectoral government policy.…

A comprehensive study of 3,650 students from 55 counties worldwide has indicated that the expansion of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has not reduced the attraction of moving countries to undertake in-person higher education in foreign universities and colleges.

Indeed, the study, by IDP Connect, part of Australia-based international student recruitment leader IDP Education, showed that 79% of students questioned were only considering overseas on-campus options.…

The food halal market for Portugal, a largely Christian country that was in the early Middle Ages part of the Muslim world, has been expanding, serving a growing local Muslim community and Muslim tourists keen to taste Portuguese food.

Between 711 and 1249, most of Portugal was under Muslim rule, which influenced its language and culture.…

Hubris comes in many forms, but surely the rushed exit of American forces from Afghanistan to meet an artificial political deadline of the 20^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the USA is a breathtaking example.

Rather than strengthening the agents of reform in Afghanistan, upon which the US and its allies have inefficiently spent trillions of dollars, this helter-skelter exit has undermined them, leaving at the mercy of a resurgent Taliban.…

INTRODUCTION

Financial crime is a minefield for the international textile and clothing industry. With extended international supply chains extending into jurisdictions where the rule of law and a reliable independent judiciary may have a weak hold, if they exist at all, textile and clothing brands and manufacturers must take care.…

INTRODUCTION

Without doubt, the world’s clothing and textile sector is undertaking a technical upgrade that is unprecedented in decades, with new digital systems offering automation and efficient internal controls. As these are worked into the businesses of brands, manufacturers and their suppliers, a new potential emerges, and that is linking these digital systems in a way that could revolutionise efficiencies within the supply chain.…

The home textile sector is a strong growth segment for digital investments within the industry and the amount of innovation indicates this expansion has some way to go. There are good reasons why this segment is well suited to digitalisation. One is the rectangular form of most bed sheets, curtains and tablecloths – which aids fully automated cutting and sewing.…

WITH an estimated annual growth of 15% regarding Pakistan’s future digital textile printing business, according to (WHO?), the sector’s outlook is positive, notably because of increasing digitally printed textile exports.

This growth has continued in the past 18 months, despite Covid-19, with more than a million cases as of July, albeit with a low confirmed death rate of 23,500 from its 225 million population.…

Mauritius’ textile and clothing manufacturing sector is expected to witness year-on-year growth of around 18.5% this year (2021) after suffering a severe Covid-19-related contraction of 28.6% in 2020. The National Accounts Estimates released by Statistics Mauritius in June (1) predict robust growth for country’s textile and apparel industry, which accounts for almost 50% of the country’s overall manufacturing.…

President Joe Biden may think he has three main foreign policy priorities this year – China, Russia and Iran – but the truth is, as far as the Middle East is concerned, all these challenges roll into one.

That is because both China and Russia are seeking increased influence in the Middle East, and hoping for potential missteps from the USA over the Iran file to leverage their diplomatic positions.…

India’s apparel and textile exporters are under huge pressure from their western buyers to meet contracts as the country’s devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic eases. As a result, manufacturers have been flying-in workers who had returned to their home while the virus ravaged India’s cities and towns, depressing production capacity.…

MALTA’S only multiple casino operator has been fined over serious AML/CFT failings, with the country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) ordering Tumas Gaming Ltd to undertake AML control reforms.

The company must pay EUR233,156 for breaching the country’s Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations.…

A plan to establish an apparel park in Lahore – the capital city of Pakistan’s Punjab province, and a major clothing and textile manufacturing hub – appears to have been stalled following a dispute between the provincial government and the prospective Chinese investor Challenge Apparel Ltd.…

As the Turkish garment sector rebounds from the drop in sales last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry is looking to tap growing demand from European retailers – and consumers – for garments made closer to home, benefiting from its advantage of being the main near-shore supplier for Europe.…

CUSTOMS forces can benefit from new sensor kit, enabling them to scan containers to ensure contents are as declared on docket – but to use these techniques to fight trade-based money laundering, they need to be integrated with accurate financial intelligence.…

The world’s clothing and textile sector is keeping a close eye on China’s National People’s Congress, which congregated in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People last Friday (March 5) in a ‘Two Sessions’ event to review and ratify the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).…

The Lahore-based Sapphire Group has been blazing a good practice example to Pakistan’s fabric manufacturing sector by focusing on innovation when many local competitors have failed to update their production practice and technology.

With an annual turnover of USD800 million and an asset base exceeding USD500 million, the Sapphire Group has been optimising its productivity though careful attention process timing targets.…

INTRODUCTION

Accounting software is crucial for any company wanting to expand on a sustainable basis, adding diversity in supply and customer relationships as they grow. The clothing and textile industry is particularly complex regarding its inputs and outputs. Production is also complex when manufacturers handle spinning, weaving, cutting and finishing.…

Anti-money laundering specialists may be focusing on how crypto-currencies and online transactions pose an increasing ML/TF risk, especially with Covid-19 encouraging ecommerce, but the reality is that cash remains the money launderers’ best instrument for moving dirty money.

That is the conclusion of Gabriel Hidalgo, a managing director at risk specialists K2 Integrity, in New York: “Cash is king for ML; it continues to be king; and on the majority of levels, illicit actors will continue to use cash,” he said.…

For a religion to be strong, it must be confident in itself: solid in its convictions and robust in its humility. While its true adherents should imbue its principles within their souls, such depth of faith should enable believers to accept others may follow a different creed.…

Asian clothing manufacturing associations, including major knitwear outsourcing hubs, are jointly developing ‘red line’ standards for sales to buyers, covering payment and delivery practices, planning and information exchanges and third-party negotiations.

The STAR Network of nine Asian federations has established five working groups to make detailed proposals as early as March.…

The Turkish digital printing sector was hard hit in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic, but as demand for garments and textiles has rebounded, so has demand for new printers. Turkey is set to become one of the world’s top three digital printers in terms of capacity and machinery, with the trend for smaller print runs and retailers seeking orders made closer to home being major growth drivers.…

EUROPE’S confectionery and sweet bakery association CAOBISCO has been pressuring the European Union (EU) to resolve a long-running trade dispute with the USA over aircraft manufacturing subsidies causing Washington to impose tariffs on European food exports. These include 25% duties on exports from the EU (including the UK) of raspberry, strawberry, apricot, peach and other jams; cherries and peaches; sweet biscuits from Germany; waffles and wafers from Britain and Germany; and an additional 25% on these jams when exported from Germany and France.…

CHEMICAL-based industries such as textile dyeing and finishing need to take care that trades involving products they make, have sold or are bought, are not being abused by money launderers to transfer the value of illicit proceeds across the world.

That is the message of the owner and operator of a specialist database that tracks the risk of products of any kind being exported and imported for the purposes of trade-based money laundering (TBML).…

QUANTUM computing is coming to fruition after decades of research and these new powerful systems will offer paint and coating manufacturers the opportunity to develop new chemicals and products unimaginable using classical computers.

These new computers excel in complex calculations needed to model molecules, especially those from nature, whose assessment are often at the core of designing new chemical solutions delivering new functionality and colour to paints and coatings.…

VIETNAM clothing industry insiders have told just-style that they are optimistic that the Vietnamese apparel supply chain will emerge strengthened from the Covid-19 crisis in 2021. This is despite an ongoing shortage of orders during 2020, only partly mitigated by switching production to make masks.…

PAKISTAN’S clothing and textile sector has called on the country’s government to offer vigorous help to help the industry emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, which it says has inflicted punishing harm on manufacturers. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) and the Pakistan Readymade Garments Exporters & Manufacturers Association (PRGMEA) are united in pressing for government action.…

PAKISTAN’S paint and coatings sector is understandably suffering from Covid-19, which has hit the country hard with 276,288 cases and 5,892 deaths as of July 28. But the industry has been expanding and its executives hope for a sustained recovery once the pandemic has abated, ending the current series of rolling smart lockdowns targeting infection hotspots.…

THE UNITED Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has proposed creating a permanent ‘observatory’ monitoring cocoa markets, assessing value and costs, to help chocolate sales revenues be more equitably distributed throughout supply chains.

In a report called a ‘Comparative study on the distribution of value in European chocolate chains’, the FAO said such “objectified and cross-checked data” would aid “a multi-stakeholder discussion” at national and global levels on revenue sharing.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has confirmed high risk AML/CFT jurisdictions on its grey and black-lists have another two months to sort out their AML/CFT weaknesses because of COVID-19 – consideration of further blacklisting and additional measures will be postponed until that deadline.…

EUROPEAN sugar users’ association CIUS has warned about slow progress within the talks between the European Union (EU) and the UK over a permanent relationship after the current transitional Brexit period expires on December 31. The CIUS wants this period extended – a step that the British government is currently refusing to take.…

Kabeer Naqvi, CEO of U Microfinance Bank Ltd, one of Pakistan’s fastest growing businesses, is clearly a man in a hurry. His bank – branded U Bank – is digitising quickly as it grows its deposits and its important lending business, that is pulling many thousands of Pakistanis out of poverty and into lives of sustainably growing income.…

PAKISTAN’S textile sector is in dire need of additional investment for modernisation and innovation in order to keep pace with its main regional competitors, industry insiders have warned.

They claim investment has been slashed in the past five years and the industry has been hit with high import tariffs on raw materials meaning programmes to upgrade machinery and other innovation projects have only continued at a sluggish rate.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has said that Iran’s failure to implement AML/CFT controls means that member countries and their financial institutions should consider taking all the precautions mandated by its guidance for high risk ML states.

Its February 19-21 plenary said that Iran still needed to remove an exemption for controls on designated terror groups’ financing when such organisations are “attempting to end foreign occupation, colonialism and racism” – which is taken to include groups opposing Israel.…

Millions of documents leaked from UK-based corporate services firm, Formations House, have revealed the ultimate beneficial owners of some 400,000 secret offshore companies as well as the alleged criminal activities of some. The firm operates from a front office located at 29 Harley Street, in central London, with back office support reportedly coming from Pakistan.…

PAKISTAN’s clothing and textile sector hopes that 2020 will be a big year for Chinese investment – as Chinese companies look to move production to outsourcing centres, such as Pakistan, that have lower labour costs than China, but nonetheless a skilled workforce, and government incentives through reduced taxes and duties.…

GLOBAL and regional public policies promoting environmental good practice and fighting climate change have long encouraged the growth of renewable energy production. And with concern about global warming sharpening, these goals – pushed by international and regional organisations and development banks – are here to stay.…

E-cigarette manufacturers in the United Kingdom pondering a Brexit from the European Union (EU) that is currently scheduled for January 31 are hoping to benefit from looser rules than currently apply in the EU, if the UK does quit the EU.…

With an improving law and order situation, business-friendly policies from its elected government, and incoming Chinese investment under the Beijing-backed CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) programme, Pakistan is becoming an increasingly attractive location for foreign direct investment, especially in the textile and clothing sector, an international conference has been told.…

With Pakistan’s digital textile printing industry production growing at an average of at least 5% annually in recent years, according to the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), with the country’s digital textile printing industry being an important focus of investment in a sometimes-troubled textile sector.…

THE IMPOSITION of excise duties on automobiles sold in Pakistan from July 1 has already had a significant depressing impact on the market. Figures released by the Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA) indicate that this July (2019), 10,968 cars made by the key Pakistan-based manufacturers owned by Suzuki, Toyota and Honda were sold, well down on the 18,875 sold in July 2018.…

UNDER the current Chinese presidency, global anti-money laundering body FATF has had strong support for its desire to boost the implementation of the AML/CFT policies and laws included in its recommendations. Money Laundering Bulletin interviewed FATF’s executive secretary David Lewis to explore how his organisation and been pushing improvements to supervision of AML/CFT to ensure its expert advice delivers on stemming dirty and terror money flows.…

OUTSOURCING centres in Asia for the international textile sector are increasingly adopting digital technologies to improve the efficiency of their weaving, as they compete for business from clothing manufacturers and brands.

Bangladesh weavers are becoming increasingly tech-savvy to improve efficiency while driving down costs.…

COSMETICS companies serving the south Asia market may grumble that they are facing challenges, but the reality is the region’s emerging markets offer growth rates that can only be dreamt of in richer countries.

India’s beauty and personal care product market is a case in point.…

PAKISTAN textile mill owners have decided to import cotton from alternative destinations to India following the government’s announcement of the suspension of trade ties with their neighbour because of the dispute over Kashmir.

On August 5, the Indian government said it was revoking the special status of Jammu & Kashmir state, turning it into a union territory, under control of the central government – Pakistan claims sovereignty over Kashmir and it has been a bone of contention between India, Pakistan and China since 1947.…

PAKISTAN’S Punjab province is set to host a new textile and garment manufacturing hub established with a Chinese company’s investment under a private partnership arrangement. Beijing-based China Railway, the major state-backed public transport and infrastructure company has said will invest USD500 million in what it calls ‘a garment city’ spreading over 400 acres at Ferozepur Road, Lahore, the provincial capital of Punjab province.…

Chinese upstream textile producers are increasing production as fears grow that the trade war with the US will hurt exports of apparel and other textile products, now additional 10% tariffs are to be levied on a wide range of China-made textile and clothing products from September 1.…

CONTINUOUS dyeing technology is being refined and improved and offering finishers worldwide the chance to improve their output efficiency, while reducing chemical, water and energy usage. However, emerging markets finishers can struggle to find the investment costs required to install this top-line cutting edge dyeing machinery.…

EVERY manufacturing and agricultural industry has an impact on climate change – and the tobacco sector is no different. Faced with long-standing criticism of the health impact of its products, the tobacco industry is now facing attacks that its work generates carbon emissions and hence climate change.…

PAKISTAN’S major Punjab province-based textile groups have discussed plans to invest at least USD1 billion in new value-added textile projects which could boost job creation and exports. According to patron-in-chief of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Gohar Ejaz,  Sapphire, Suraj, Kamal, US Apparel, Interloop, Fazal Cloth Mills, Mahmood Textile, Ayesha Group, Bhanero Group,  Ejaz Group, Kohinoor Mills, Sadaqat Textile Ltd have decided to make collaborative investments that enable them to maximise potential overseas demand, because of the export-friendly policy of Pakistan’s new government.…

THE INDIAN clothing and textile industry thinks it is better able to score export orders internationally since March when the central government announced new tax benefits for the country’s garment exporters. Rahul Mehta, president of Clothing Manufacturing Association of India, told just-style, that the combined reduction in costs delivered by a refund of the central and state taxes, new benefits under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS), and renewed 2% duty drawbacks, is 9% to 10%, and that “makes us more competitive”.…

PAKISTAN’s apparel and garment exporters have called on the country’s new government to simplify what it regards as overly complex trading red-tape impeding the import of key inputs, vital for diversifying export-oriented production.

“To increase our exports, we will have to enhance our product lines and relax the existing import policy for import of raw materials,” Muhammad Ijaz Khokhar, coordinator of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) told just-style.…

REDUCED energy tariffs for Pakistan’s export-oriented textile sector look set to kickstart a revival in the country’s ailing power loom industry.  

It has been struggling due to a dip in demand for exports, which the industry blames to a significant degree on high gas and electricity rates over the past decade, said Waheed Khaliq Ramey, chairman Council of Power Looms Owners Association, who said it has sparked a 10% reduction in operations in Faisalabad – the hub of Pakistan’s power loom industry, with 250,000 of the country’s 300,000 looms in the region.…

The Czech textile industry has a long traditional presence in the country, and local textile printing firms are steadily adopting digital technologies. One of the key players is OP Tiger, which significantly increased its output after it moved last September (2018) to a new facility in Hrbovice, near the town of Ústí nad Labem in North Bohemia.…

IN a country where tax collection remains weak, Bangladesh accounting experts now hope that a 2012 transfer pricing (TP) law is finally starting to increase revenues, although progress is slow. Demonstrating the difficulties involved in rolling out complex tax legislation in emerging market states that targets powerful multinationals, the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) says that it collected just USD1.2 million’s worth more taxes from 10 multinationals (which it would not name) in the financial year to last June (2018) than without taking TP into account.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) chocolate, biscuit and confectionery industry association CAOBISCO has raised concerns that EU exporters will be unable to exploit the reduction of Japanese tariffs under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), in force since February 1. CAOBISCO is concerned about how the deal includes rules of origin forcing its members to demonstrate how they source specific volumes of ingredients from the EU, rather than their value, which would be easier to demonstrate.…

PAKISTAN’S textile manufacturers and exporters appear divided over the possible negative impact on the country’s textile sector arising from prevailing tensions on the Indian border.

According to exporters, concern cause by air strikes by India in Balakot – in Pakistan’s Khayber Pakhtunkhwa province – on February 26 – will affect export volumes as some foreign buyers may have diverted new orders to other countries like Bangladesh and China.…

INDIA’S large military forces are to start sourcing a significant volumes of technical textile products from private companies from next year (2020), opening up a new market for local and international manufacturers, delegates at a recent conference were told in New Delhi.…

GOVERNMENT moves in Pakistan to rationalise taxes, duties and other levies for exporting manufacturers have been widely welcomed by the country’s textile sector.

The government has withdrawn a 3% customs duty, 2% additional customs duty and 5% sales tax on imports of raw cotton, meeting a further long-standing demand of the textile industry, besides allowing a five-year tax break for new textile manufacturing plants.…

THE EUROPEAN Commission has included four American external territories – Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa – on a proposed blacklist of weak AML/CFT jurisdictions released today (Feb 13).

Brussels’ updated list includes 12 countries that are viewed with concern by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the Bahamas, Botswana, North Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Iran, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen. …

WITH the Asia-Pacific coatings market and industry being one of the most dynamic worldwide, experiencing continuous robust growth, the potential for additives to give brands an edge in seizing market share is increasingly important.

Backed by buoyant construction, automotive and marine industries across the Asia Pacific, the region’s paint and coatings additives market is showing promising growth, analysts say.…

Malaysia’s money laundering regulation and policies may be on par with international best practice, but their implementation has been tested of late, experts say. These concerns have been sharpened by the scandal related to Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1 Malaysia Development Bhd or 1MDB, with Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak accused of channelling more than Malaysian Ringgit MYR 2.67 billion (USD700 million) from the fund to personal bank accounts.…

THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body (DSB) has approved establishing disputes settlement panels ruling sought by the USA on whether retaliatory duties imposed by the European Union (EU), Canada, China, and Mexico on US confectionery and sweet bakery and associated ingredient exports, imposed in response to America’s controversial steel and aluminium tariffs, break WTO rules.…

PAKISTAN’S textile sector has been encouraged by the country’s new government’s reforms to gas pricing to request exemptions from duties and taxes on imports of raw materials – and the long-awaited release of refunds by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).…

PAKISTAN’S textile and clothing sector representatives have expressed conflicting views over an International Finance Corporation (IFC) initiative aimed at supporting textile industry efforts to reduce energy consumption with a view to improving sustainability.

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) termed the IFC move a very positive step for Pakistan’s ailing textile sector while the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) thought otherwise, claiming the plan would not work because it doesn’t provide remedies for the real issues of the textile sector.…

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) have endorsed a project named ‘Greening Vietnam’s textile sector through improving water management and energy sustainability’ with the declared aim of transforming the Vietnamese textile industry into a more environmentally friendly and sustainable one.…

THE Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) are set to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to assist the textile industry representative body in relation to ease of doing business, training of companies’ directors and registration of new companies.…

As he took in the fourth Africa Sourcing and Fashion Week (ASFW) in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa last week, Kenneth K Han, managing director of Shints ETP Garment Plc, said he is optimistic over the country’s potential in the textile and apparel sector, despite many challenges.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry is pinning high hopes on the country’s newly-sworn-in government of Prime Minister Imran Khan for the revival of the textile sector – fixing the financial damage it has suffered through dwindling exports.

In its manifesto, Khan’s victorious party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), raised the hopes of the business community – notably exporters – to put the Pakistan economy back on track by reviving the textile sector which contributes around 60% to the country’s total exports.…

PAKISTAN’s textile sector is gearing up to shift to solar and other renewable energy to combat the effects of escalating power costs which have rendered their businesses uncompetitive in the region.

Reon Energy, which is part of Dawood Hercules Group, based in Karachi, has recently completed the installation of a one megawatt solar project at Kohinoor Textile Mills Limited (KTML), in the Punjab province.…

Signs of an accelerating relocation of garment investment from China to the Philippines are emerging, amidst the US imposing an additional 10% duty on textile and some clothing products from China. The Chinese government retaliation of an additional 25% duty on US cotton imports making raw material sourcing for China-based manufacturers more expensive has also raised the cost of doing business in China.…

India’s newly renamed Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishor Manikya Bahadur Airport, in Tripura state, which has its boundary wall running along a heavily defended Bangladesh border, is getting extra security and a new terminal building.

“As it is a hyper sensitive airport, its sanctioned strength of security force will soon be increased from 224 to 330,” Shekhar Dev Burman, director of the airport told Jane’s.…

China seems to have given the world nuclear industry back its mojo this summer with two big moves: the signing in June of an order for four Gen 3+ VVER-1200 reactors from Russia’s Rosatom. This certainly got the bubbly flowing at the World Nuclear Exhibition, in Paris, in late June, following two years of sluggish investment in this globalised industry.…

PAKISTANI textile exporters fear further devaluation of their currency will escalate the already high cost of doing business in the country and lead to a decline in export volumes, despite the edge cheaper currencies can offer in overseas markets.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), in 11 months of the current fiscal year 2017-18, textile exports rose by 9.82% to USD12.336 billion compared with USD11.23 billion for the corresponding period in 2016-17.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry associations have urged their government to provide “an enabling environment” and relax import duties on raw materials to encourage exporters and boost value-addition for the country’s struggling textile industry.

Reacting to Sindh province governor Mohammad Zubair’s remarks in which he highlighted the importance of the industry adding value to its products to boost textile exports, association leaders say his comments are unfounded as manufacturers are doing their best but battling high production costs, against which they have campaigned long and hard.…

Cotton industry analysts have said the clothing industry should not overreact to a major hike in Chinese cotton futures contracts, following years of stockpiling the fibre by China buyers, even though they accept market uncertainty has been driving up prices.

Contracts have been purchased covering more than 361,000 bales of US cotton for 2019-20, according to US Department of Agriculture data which “would be enough to make 400 million t-shirts,” the Wall Street Journal suggested in an article on June 10, adding: “China has never booked that much cotton that far in advance at this time of year, in data going back to 1998” and has now become a “major consumer” of US cotton.…

PAKISTAN’S law enforcers and regulators are on the front line when it comes to fighting terrorist financing, money laundering and financial crime in general, both within the country and from across its borders, notably conflict-riven Afghanistan. But its government and state agencies often send mixed messages over their commitment to fight terror finance.…

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of Islam, a religious duty every Muslim should perform once in their lifetime. But with 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide and the Hajj only occurring over five days every year, the event is a logistical challenge for the Saudi Arabian government, tour operators, hospitality service providers, retailers and accountants.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industrialists are downbeat over the diminishing prospects of investment by Chinese financiers and manufacturers, holding the government responsible for the apparent stalemate with its continued prohibitive production costs.

Speaking to WTiN.com, Pakistan textile industry insiders believe that sensing the high cost of doing business compared with rival manufacturing countries in south Asia, Chinese investors are losing interest in the Pakistani sector.…

AN UPCOMING European Union (EU) ‘Counterfeit and Piracy Watch-List’, being developed by the European Commission to identify physical and digital marketplaces outside the EU where counterfeit tobacco and other consumer product are traded widely.

Intellectual property abuse is a key concern to the EU tobacco sector.…

PAKISTAN clothing industry unions and associations have welcomed the approval of the Home Based Workers Act 2018 by the legislative assembly of Sindh – the second largest province of Pakistan – calling it an initiative of historic importance.

According to Zehra Khan, general secretary, Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF), the law will have a very wide-ranging impact not only on the socio-economic conditions of the home-based workers, but also Pakistan’s economy.…

A GROWING wave of sophisticated digital technologies and automation is helping the US apparel sector to produce custom-made, locally-manufactured, on-demand clothing, at a scale that some critics thought was never possible.

Atlanta US-based machine vision and Artificial Intelligence start-up SoftWear Automation Inc, which launched autonomous sewing worklines in 2012 after seven years of research – says it has successfully overcome this challenge.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry has demanded more incentives and concessions from the government in its upcoming 2018-19 budget through lower taxes and electricity bills, and speedy repayment of tax refunds, encouraging growth in the sector.

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has dispatched a 30-page bundle of proposals to the government calling for them to be incorporated in the federal budget – likely to be unveiled on April 27.…

A RENEWED free trade agreement (FTA) looks set to be signed between Pakistan and China giving a boost to the textile industry.

Officials from the two countries met in Beijing last month (Feb) for the ninth round in a series of protracted talks aimed at streamlining the original FTA which came into force in 2006.…

PAKISTAN’S government is considering a fresh package of incentives for the country’s exporters, including the key textile and clothing sector, which is particularly interested in the fact officials are examining reducing energy bills. Industry insiders have long argued high energy costs in Pakistan are one of the key factors for increasing production expenses, reducing competitivity and hence overseas sales.…

PAKISTAN’S textile exporters have urged their government to speed up and

enhance a tax incentives package if they are to kick

start the country’s ailing textile sector.

The government has rolled out a series of incentives over the past year, including the abolition of a 4% customs duty and 5% sales tax imposed on import of raw cotton announced on January 5 (in force on January 8), meeting a long-standing demand of the textile sector. …

High on the agenda of Dr Oetker India managing director and chief executive officer Oliver Mirza is making India a major production hub, not just for manufacturing packaged foods scoring sales in India’s growing markets, but also for exports.

In a wide-ranging interview with just-food on the sidelines of the India Food Forum, staged in Mumbai last month (January 17-19), Mirza said that by 2020, Dr Oetker India was targeting sales of Indian Rupees INR10 billion (USD155 million) of which its sub-brand FunFoods will account for INR5 billion (USD 77.50 million).…

PAKISTAN’S economy is growing and becoming increasingly formal, with banking rates on the rise, so groundbreaking micro-finance is a key part of this economic modernisation.

The Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company (PMIC) is part of this change – it not a standard micro-finance lender: it finances other micro-finance organisations.…

THE SECURITIES Commission Malaysia (SC) has issued Guidelines on Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) Funds to boost the growth of green investments in the country. The advice follows Malaysia issuing in July the world’s first green sukuk (Islamic bond).

The new advice applies to conventional as well as Islamic sustainable finance, including unit trust funds, real estate trust funds, exchange-traded funds, and venture capital and private equity funds.…

It has been weeks since quotas limiting European Union (EU) sugar production were scrapped on September 30, and while its impact has yet to become clear, experts agree that EU output will rise, at least in the short term. The EU executive, the European Commission is predicting that EU sugar production will increase 20% in the coming year.…

With its mega shopping malls, opulent standards of living and investor-friendly climate, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has always been a strategic market for international beauty brands. The small nation of 9.27 million was ranked as the seventh biggest consumer of beauty products in the world by research firm Euromonitor International, with a per capita spend of around USD239 in 2016.…

African clothing exporting countries are banking on rising costs in China and changing consumption patterns worldwide to attract buyers to the continent to take advantage of lower production costs.

Major hurdles abound, but manufacturers are hopeful that clothing facilities built from scratch that abide by international best practices will help the continent’s apparel sector develop.…

THE EGYPT government and leather industry is planning to boost the country’s leather exports by 80%, to USD1 billion by 2020, through modernising the sector and developing dedicated manufacturing hubs. The Egyptian leather sector took a major hit in terms of lost sales and output during the political and economic instability following the 2011 revolution, and there has been no major investment for the past 15 years to upgrade facilities and improve output.…

PAKISTAN’S Punjab provincial government, with the assistance of US firm Monsanto, is to introduce new climate smart and high yield cotton seed varieties, aiming at increasing the per hectare yield in the province. However, the country’s textile industry and farmers’ representatives are concerned that this and other initiatives will only make a difference if government officials work harder to ensure new seed is delivered to growers.…

CHINA’S imposition of temporary safeguard duties to protect its sugar industry have been challenged at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), with sugar giant Brazil arguing Beijing’s tariffs break global commerce rules. In a signal that Brazil might be considering launching a disputes case against China, diplomats for the South American country told a WTO safeguards committee meeting that the duties broke the WTO agreement on safeguards and the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT). …

THE EUROPEAN Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has warned of the major impact on British and other European Union (EU) knitwear companies, especially brands with integrated upstream fabric and finishing units, should the UK quit the EU as planned, on March 29, 2019.…

THE UNITED Arab Emirates (UAE) has long been a fertile ground for colour cosmetics brands thanks to its large young population (its median age is just over 30) and the presence of image conscious consumers. Despite the pressure of rising costs and fierce competition among brands, the country’s colour cosmetics market experienced moderate growth in 2017 compared to 2016, increasing an estimated 4% in value terms to reach Emirati Dirham AED1.1 billion (USD299.4 million), according to market researcher Euromonitor International.…

THE PAINT and coatings industry in south Asia maybe thriving, but regional trade between countries is not – being restricted to exports of pigments, resins, solvents and additives from India to its neighbouring countries. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan, as well as regional giant India, are all members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), but they import most of their paint and coating raw materials.…

TURKISH textile and clothing businesses hope to see increased commerce with Bangladesh buyers as the two Asian countries forge ahead with striking a free trade agreement (FTA). “We concluded an FTA with Karachi [Pakistan]. We are going to find the midpoint with Bangladesh also,” said Başaran Bayrak, a council member of the Turkish Exporters Assembly, an autonomous government body working under Turkey’s ministry of economy, that acts as a bridge between the government and the private sector.…

THE PAKISTAN textile industry is worried that a potential trade free trade deal with Thailand, now under discussion, may cause more harm than good to Pakistani manufacturers. Thai and Pakistan government negotiators are preparing for what maybe the final round of talks to forge a free trade agreement (FTA) between these two textile producing countries, with a deal potentially being signed in January.…

PAKISTAN’S new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has demonstrated a fresh willingness to help the country’s textile sector, amidst a continuing sharp decline in exports. Unlike the man he replaced, Nawaz Sharif, who lost his job over a corruption scandal in July, Abbasi has appointed a relevant minister for the textile sector (a portfolio Sharif kept for himself).…

TEXTILE mill owners in Pakistan have expressed doubts over their government’s apparent enthusiasm to develop joint ventures (JVs) with their Chinese counterparts to boost dwindling export levels.

Pakistan’s textile minister, Pervaiz Malik, said at the 18th Textile Asia International Exhibition in Lahore recently that his government wants JVs with the Chinese textile sector and for his country to become a textile business hub for the Middle East, central and south Asia.…

RESTRICTIVE quotas limiting European Union (EU) sugar production to 13.5 million tonnes have finally been scrapped, freeing producers to hit market demand. The abolition of the quotas from October 1 sees European Commission officials predicting that EU sugar production will increase 20% and reach 20.1 million tonnes for the next harvest.…

A KEY European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) committee has ruled that the common whitening agent titanium dioxide should be recognised as carcinogenic within the European Union (EU) when inhaled. A formal recommendation that this health risk should be noted in an annex to the EU’s classification, labelling and packaging regulation (CLP) will come later this year.…

A MAJOR international anti-counterfeiting action ‘Operation Renegade’ did not just seize more than 70,000 counterfeit auto spare parts, oil and air filters, grills, and fuel pumps, and nearly 600 cylinders of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants, it yielded valuable anti-smuggling and counterfeiting information.…

THE PANAMA Papers leak has claimed its latest high profile political scalp – Nawaz Sharif, 67, who has resigned as Prime Minister of Pakistan, following the unanimous decision, on July 28, by the country’s Supreme Court to disqualify him from office.…

AS Ethiopia rapidly emerges as a key clothing and textile hub of Africa, the country has been making impressive strides as a knitwear manufacturing and sourcing centre, attracting the attention of global clothing majors.

“International buyers are beginning to buy knitted clothes from Ethiopia including Zara, Tesco, H&M [Hennes & Mauritz] and Decathlon,” said Fassil Tadesse, president of the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturing Association (ETGAMA).…

In a move that will disappoint many textile manufacturers and exporters, the government of Pakistan has decided to abandon its plans to build a Pakistan Textile City near Karachi.
A senior government official at Pakistan’s ministry of textile industry confirmed to just-style that the federal cabinet’s economic coordination committee had approved winding up a Pakistan Textile City Ltd (PTCL), a special purpose vehicle for the project, after clearing the company’s liabilities and transferring its land to the Port Qasim Authority (PQA).…

TURKISH and Pakistani textile executives are divided in their opinion about the likely benefits of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under discussion between Pakistan and Turkey, with Pakistan opinion in favour, but less enthusiasm in Turkey.

Seven rounds of talks between the two sides have taken place and further talks maybe staged in August.…

THE LEAGUE of Arab States’ 22 countries have imported more Brazilian textiles and clothing between January and July of 2017 than during the whole of 2016, according to the latest industry figures from the Brazilian-Arabic Chamber of Commerce (CCAB – Câmara de Comércio Árabe-Brasileira).…

PAKISTAN’S ministry of industries and production has granted Category-A Greenfield investment status to four automobile manufacturing investors to set up manufacturing plants – effectively greenlighting their projects to establish auto-making plants in the country.

Shah Jahan Shah, spokesperson for Pakistan’s ministry of industries and production said he ministry had signed an agreement with these July 17 (2017).…

THE POLITICAL standoff between India and Pakistan may dominate the news headlines but India’s synthetic textiles, yarn and fibre are starting to find an increasing number of Pakistani buyers.

According to Kripabar Baruah, joint director, Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), exports to Pakistan that had fallen in 2014-5, and 2015-6, have grown in the current financial year (2016-17).…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry, including manufacturers of fabric, yarn, and garments, suspended production and organised protests nationwide on June 20, dubbing the protest ‘Black Tuesday’, over the government’s slow implementation of a promised USD1.7 billion relief package for the sector.

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) organised the day of action, supported by the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA), All Pakistan Bedsheets And Upholstery Manufacturers Association (APBUMA), the All Pakistan Textile Processing Mills Association (APTPMA), the All Pakistan Cotton Power Looms Association, the Council of Loom Owners Association and other groups. …

A sudden shortage of leather in India prompted by government religious policies on reducing cattle-related trades is forcing major fashion brands to look for alternative sourcing destinations. Even Indian fashion goods exporters are having to buy costly imports of raw leather to service existing orders.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) is running a project, largely funded by the European Union (EU), to improve compliance with labour and environmental standards for companies in Pakistan, mostly in the textile and leather sectors. The EU budget contribution is EUR12 million, with the remaining EUR600,000 being co-financed by the United Nations’ agency, which will take the lead in implementation.…

GLOBAL knitwear outsourcing centre Bangladesh is expected to soon ratify the emerging market D-8 PTA preferential trade agreement, newspaper reports in Dhaka say, indicating the government may have loosened demands over rules of origin. Bangladesh has been pushing for its manufacturers to gain privileged access to D-8 markets (Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Turkey, as well as Egypt if it also ultimately ratifies), if 30% of value in a product is created within Bangladesh.…

PAKISTAN’s milk powder importers have told just-food they are unclear whether their government will go ahead with budget plans to increase import duty on imported milk powder, opposing such a hike in principle.

Concern has been raised proposals made in the government’s federal budget for 2017-18, which included a plan to increase duties by 5% in some cases and 15% in others on 565 imported items.…

A CLEAR sign of sustainable development in any country is a switch away from cash and towards formal banking – it is a sign that companies and employees expect their earnings to continue, and that they are prepared to pay tax.…

PAKISTANI textile business executives have welcomed the enthusiasm of Chinese investors to bring investments into Pakistan’s textile sector through joint ventures and relocating of their textile production units, because of rising costs and tightening environmental regulations within China.

According to All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Chinese interest has in Pakistan has grown further after the APTMA secretary general gave a comprehensive presentation at a conference in Shishi city, in Fujian province, organised by the China Textile Information Centre from April 19-20.…

INDIA’S Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), one of the oldest textile export promotion councils in India, is looking forward to an Indian-government promoted major conference and exhibition ‘Textiles India – 2017’, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from June 30 to July 2.…

INDIA’S Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), one of the oldest textile export promotion councils in India, is looking forward to an Indian-government promoted major conference and exhibition ‘Textiles India – 2017’, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, from June 30 to July 2.…

THE PAKISTAN and Spain governments are working together to boost their countries’ bilateral trade, with textiles and clothing a key part of this commerce. sales of Pakistani textile goods exported to Spain is increasing, with receipts generated by all commerce between the two countries expected to generate at least USD1 billion this year (2017), Spain’s ambassador to Pakistan Carlos Morales has said (it exceeded this amount in 2016, said commerce ministry officials).…

THE CHIEF executive of a major Pakistan government economic development agency has told wardsauto that Volkswagen has made significant progress in talks to establish new manufacturing production in this key south Asian market’s port city of Karachi. The latest fruit of the business-friendly policies pursued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, “Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is in final talks with Premier Systems Private Limited – the authorised importer of Audi vehicles in the country – to set up a manufacturing/assembly plant for its Amarok and T6 (transporter range) models and Volkswagen,” Tariq Ejaz Chaudhary, CEO of Pakistan’s Engineering Development Board told wardsauto.…

A MALAYSIAN government scheme encouraging foreign investors to buy property in Malaysia may have led to thousands of Bangladeshis breaching their country’s strict capital control restrictions.

A total of 3,493 Bangladeshis has participated in the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) long-term residency programme since 2003, according to statistics updated in December (2016) – 10.7% of all investors taking part worldwide.…

PAKISTAN knitwear manufacturers and exporters say the country’s knitwear industry is passing through difficult times, with export sales becoming tougher to secure through growing input costs and a continued failure of the government to implement a much-vaunted and recently-announced bailout package.…

THE ANCIENT Celts has a saying: “To the brave belong all things.” And in business, this remains true. Companies prepared to take big risks, can reap big spoils. But they can also stumble into disaster. Such calculations are always made when foreign companies consider trading or investing in so-called ‘failed states’ or those at risk of failure.…

PAKISTAN business leaders trading in traditional Kashmiri textiles are worried about the shrinking size of the trade in their products, blaming the government for this poor state of affairs. It is hard times for Pakistan manufacturers of Kashmiri shawls, popularised by French Queen Marie Antoinette as a luxury item and more recently popular amongst ethnic clothing consumers.…

A TRAINING project for Pakistan cotton farmers has been launched by the Australian government, industry association Cotton Australia and the global Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), with the goal of boosting production in this key south Asian supplier of the fibre.…

With the global garment market still growing fast, Bangladesh needs to seize the so-called ‘China-plus’ opportunity while penetrating new markets and diversifying its products, a Dhaka conference has heard.

In a keynote speech Dr Nazneen Ahmed, a senior research fellow at the state-run think-tank Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), argued world apparel sales were USD445 billion in 2015, set to grow USD700 billion by 2021

But uncertainty over Brexit, the new Trump-influenced global trade regime and an India’s textile sector incentive package of Indian rupees INR60 billion (USD900 million) are posing fresh challenges for the Bangladesh industry, speakers stressed.…

THE BANGLADESH government is to formally propose a new Civil Aviation Operation Act 2017 which would include allowing the death penalty to be imposed on plane hijackers. The death sentence, which in Bangladesh is carried out by hanging, was recently added to the draft of the law, which updates the 1960 Civil Aviation Ordinance, dating back to when Bangladesh was East Pakistan.…

KEY MESSAGES

*The nuclear industry has an ageing staff and needs to recruit new professionals as they retire

*Its strong health and retirement benefits packages could help it attract the new staff it needs

*The nuclear industry outside north America has a strong expat component, making it easier for recruit staff from abroad

INTRODUCTION

The nuclear industry sector is facing some significant human resources challenges, but new research carried out by Airswift and Energy Jobline indicates that the nuclear sector can still compete for talent.…

THE PAKISTAN and Italian textile industry sectors have agreed three memoranda of understanding (MoU) designed to ramp up cooperation between their companies and sectoral associations.

The Italian textile machinery manufacturing association (L’Associazione Costruttori Italiani di Macchinario per Industria Tessile – ACIMIT) signed three separate MoUs with the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMEA) and the Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturer and Exporters Association (PRGMEA).…

PAKISTAN textile executives have told WTiN.com that the announcement of a Pakistan rupees PKR180 billion (USD1.71 billion) support package by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has sent positive signals to the country’s ailing textile industry. The industry has been struggling with high energy prices, taxes and import duties on raw materials.…

PAKISTAN has launched its first public charging station for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, paving the way for an anticipated increase in such eco-friendly cars on the country’s often crowded and polluted roads. The station, the first of its kind in south Asia, was inaugurated by Karachi-based auto importer and manufacturer Dewan Farooque Motors Ltd, (which also makes standard transmission Hyundai and Kia models), in conjunction with German auto maker BMW, which supplied the recharging technology.…

The central chairman of Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Ijaz Khokhar has welcomed a new government incentive package of Pakistan Rupees PKR180 billion (USD1.7 billion) designed to boost the country’s clothing and textile exports.

These industries remain the country’s key export earner, and the package especially focuses on clothing, with the government cutting import duties on key cotton and fabric inputs.…

THE HONG Kong and Pakistan government have signed a comprehensive agreement on avoiding double taxation. Pakistani tax paid by Hong Kong companies will be credited against Hong Kong taxes on the same profits, with the reverse applying for Pakistan companies. Pakistan’s withholding tax rates for Hong Kong residents on royalties and fees for technical services (both currently 15%) will be capped at 10% and 12.5% respectively.…

2016 – Winners and losers

RETAILERS & BRANDS

WINNERS

US-based sportswear brand Under Armour delivered its 26th consecutive quarter of 20%-plus revenue growth in the third quarter of 2016, with sales increases across all divisions. Net sales were up 22% in the third quarter to USD1.47bn.…

LEADING French automaker Renault could soon start producing vehicles in Pakistan, the chairman of the south Asian country’s Board of Investment (BOI) has predicted to wardsauto. Miftah Ismail said that the manufacturer had submitted an application to the government of Pakistan seeking permission to produce cars locally, initially in a joint venture with Ghandhara Nissan, which is Renault’s global partner.…

PAKISTAN’S denim export industry hopes that help for the textile announced by the government in February (exemption from paying sales tax and payment of long overdue tax refunds) and in a meeting with industry leaders in September (a promised reduction in energy costs) will boost this promising segment.…

Indian cotton exports to Pakistan are expected to drop sharply after rising political tensions between the two neighbours over the Kashmir issue and the availability of more competitive cotton from West African countries and United States, WTiN has been told.

“There are concerns of [Indian and Pakistan] putting a stop to each other’s trade,” said Atif Dada, chairman of the Karachi Cotton Association, in Karachi.…

Leaders of Pakistan’s ailing clothing and textile industry have told just-style how they are concerned about their sector’s declining exports, calling on the federal government to intervene promptly to reverse this trend.

“Our exports have been continuously falling since 2013 and the government failed to take any remedial measures,” said Muhammad Ijaz Khokhar, Central Chairman of Pakistan Readymade Garments & Exporters Association (PRGMEA).…

A KEY women’s business group in Pakistan has voiced concerns about a fall in textile exports from the country, given the industry is not only the largest foreign exchange earning sector of the country, but a key employer of female workers nationwide.…

Worries are looming large over the Pakistan meat market as exporters fear further falls in exports amid unchecked smuggling of cattle to neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran. According to Nasib Ahmed Saifi, chairman of the All Pakistan Meat Exporters & Processors Association (APMEPA), Pakistan’s halal meat exports have declined by 40% to USD2 billion from USD2.4 billion in just one year: “If the government doesn’t come up with a proper strategy to curb the menace of smuggling, we fear our exports may further go down,” Saifi said.…

COTTON

Cotton maybe one of the most popular fibres for clothing and accessories because of its universality, timelessness, and availability, but this past year has shown that the fibre is not immune to volatile economic markets. World cotton production fell by 17% to 21.65 million tonnes in 2015-2016, the lowest volume since 2003-2004, according to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).…

Sri Lanka’s cosmetic and beauty product manufacturers are becoming increasingly anxious over the lack of sales regulations, promoting significant volumes of lower grade cosmetic imports, putting local manufacturers at risk. 

Until July 2015, there was a specific authority to oversee cosmetic products being imported as well as distributed in the country.…

SOUTH Asia’s growing personal care product sector is of increasing importance to international brands, with growing middle classes among vast populations creating a honeypot market with consumers, many accustomed to English-language marketing.

As the region’s hub and overwhelmingly most populous country, India’s beauty and personal care industry will generate sales worth USD13.3 billion in 2016, growing by 14.2% year-on-year, according to UK-based market research firm Euromonitor International.…

A EUROPEAN Commission ruling that Ireland must recover up to EUR13 billion in back-taxes (plus interest) from Apple has signalled a tough approach from Brussels over alleged European Union (EU) competition law breaches associated with sweet taxation deals by member states.…

Pakistan’s textile industry is warning of serious damage to the cotton-related businesses if a new 4% import duty currently charged on raw cotton for textile manufacturers serving domestic market is maintained.

“This policy will have a long term impact on the cotton consumption in Pakistan and the whole value chain will be affected,” Asif Inam, vice chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), in Karachi told WTiN. …

WHILE Pakistan prepares to implement some new reforms to corporate governance rules, a leading female business executive hopes this latest round of reform will lead to greater participation of women on corporate boards as directors.

Economist and business executive Sadia Khan has earned recognition as Pakistan’s leading advocate of improved corporate governance for her work over the past two decades in both the public and private sectors.…

PAKISTAN has been staging talks with the British government to lessen impact of Brexit on Pakistan’s textile and other key industries.

A senior official at Pakistan’s ministry of commerce told WTiN.com that Pakistani officials had already consulted London officials about how trade concessions available to Pakistan through the European Union’s (EU) GSP+ scheme would continue after a UK exit from the EU.…

WITH 4.8 million Syrian refugees registered by the UN, and many more displaced without registration, their impact on consumer markets outside their home country has been significant. The tobacco sector has been no exception. Indeed, even before the civil war, Syrians were keen smokers – with 2004 Syrian Centre for Tobacco Studies research indicating that 56.9% of men smoked cigarettes and 17% of women; 20.2% of men smoked waterpipes (shisha) and 4.8% of women; 29% smoked daily – 51.4% of men and 11.5% of women).…

MOBILE money transactions surged in 2015 across the world – increasing by 31% to reach 411 million mobile money accounts, and this is a critical platform for expanding financial inclusion globally, according to GSMA, a UK-based global mobile industry association, in its February 2016 annual report on the ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money’. …

Pakistan’s shampoo and conditioner market is following the positive trend seen within the country’s beauty and personal care sector in general – more women in work who want to look good are prepared to buy these products.

UK-based market research firm Euromonitor International has said that its modelled data indicated that the country’s USD158 million’s worth of hair shampoo retail sales in 2014 leapt to USD179 million in 2015, and could reach USD240 million by 2020.…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

THE PAKISTAN government has reduced customs duties on importing machinery used in the livestock and meat industry from 5% to 2% to encourage investment and development in the livestock and meat industry.

Incubators, brooders and animal feedstuffs machinery are among the imports that will see duties reduced in this way.…

Pakistan’s largest multi-industry conglomerate, the Fauji Group, has launched the country’s biggest and state-of-the-art halal abattoir and meat processing and exporting unit near Port Qasim, Karachi. The Fauji Meat Ltd (FML) subsidiary-run facility, which has been fully operational since April (2016), has a daily production capacity of 100 tonnes of meat (85 tonnes of beef and 15 tonnes of mutton, according to a company note) in both frozen and chilled categories per day for worldwide export, and cost an estimated USD75 million to build.…

Pakistan remains a source of concern to global anti-money laundering (ML) authorities even though the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the world’s leading AML organisation, removed the country from its monitoring process last February (2015). Then, FATF cited Pakistan as having made “significant progress” in improving its AML and CFT (combating the financing of terrorism) regime.…

It gets exceedingly hot in Riyadh in the summer, with the mercury rarely below 40 degrees Celsius, but that does not deter Moazam Shah from going for his evening run around the residential compound he lives in with his family.

After six years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani national Shah has acclimatised to exercising in extreme heat: “It’s a time for myself, to catch up on my thoughts,” he told Accounting & Business at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Manama, Bahrain.…

Indonesian negotiators must press harder to make progress on the European Union (EU)-Indonesia free trade agreement or textile manufacturers risk losing market share to neighbouring competitors like Vietnam, according to the Indonesian Textile Association (API – Asosiasi Pertekstilan Indonesia). Its chairman Ade Sudrajat told WTiN.com…

DETAILS have been released about knitwear and yarn tariffs that will be scrapped regarding products exported and imported between Vietnam and the European Union (EU) under their new trade deal. The full text of the agreement struck last August (2015) has been released and shows how the EU is prepared to remove its tariff barriers to Vietnam knitwear exports.…

Turkish denim firms have roared onto the global market in recent years, impressing consumers, terrifying the competition.

These companies are aided by Turkey’s high quality cotton – particularly that produced in the country’s Aegean region on the west coast. Aegean premium cotton is renowned for its ability to retain paint and for its softness and absorbency, all without genetic modification.…

PAKISTAN’S textile sector is struggling as exports are declining, with producers unable to compete with regional countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam,

Jawed Bilwani, chairman of the Pakistan Apparel Forum has told WTiN.com. In an interview he warned that looking at trade data for financial year 2014-15 compared to 2013-2014: “Our textile exports are declining persistently and are in a state of emergency.”…

SPECIAL trade access to developed countries is always a boon to emerging market suppliers, and the European Union’s (EU) GSP+ system is especially sought after, and – noted a recent European Commission report – widely utilised.

GSP+ suspends EU duties on 66% of EU tariff lines, while for standard GSP, these same duties are merely reduced.…

THE PAKISTAN government has unveiled a new five-year industrial plan aimed at growing the country’s automotive manufacturing sector. The government says it will waive import duties on materials and technology needed to establish new auto plants in Pakistan and also reduce import duties charged on auto parts once these factories are operational.…

Free trade agreements with the United States and Europe are essential if the Indonesian textile market is to flourish and compete with strong regional rivals, according to analysts and sector leaders.

The Indonesian government has said it wants to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement agreed by 12 Pacific Rim countries last October (2015).…

Pakistan’s ministry of textile industry wants cabinet support for an action plan to ensure the country’s textile manufacturers receive enough cotton supplies following a slump in local production during the 2015 growing season.

According to current government data, Pakistan’s cotton production dropped 33.85% to 9.71 million bales during this past 2015 growing season.…

Pakistan’s textile producers have welcomed new tax incentives aimed at boosting the industry. Official documents provided to WTiN.com by Pakistan’s ministry of textile industry reveal that Pakistan’s government is planning to create of 3 million new jobs by providing tax incentives to its struggling textile industry.  …

JAPANESE development agencies are working to increase the level of textile imports sourced from Pakistan. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), based in Yokohama, is presently in discussions with the government of Pakistan about ways in which Japanese overseas development aid might be best put to use to assist this sector – of critical importance to the overall Pakistani economy.…

PAKISTAN’S textile producers will continue to benefit from European Union (EU) preferential tariffs following a European Union’s decision not to suspend Pakistan’s ‘generalised scheme of preferences plus’ (GSP+), status despite concerns about its human rights record.

The scheme has been beneficial to Pakistan’s textile industry – textiles and clothing account for around 75% of Pakistan’s exports to the EU.…

International cotton prices are expected to rise because Pakistan is importing more than five million bales of cotton this season, mostly from India, to compensate for a 34% fall in domestic production year-on-year caused by bad weather and pests. “Due to heavy rains, not only the cotton in the fields was spoiled but the pesticides and fertilizers were also diluted, leading to pink bollworm attack,” Khawaja Tahir, chairman Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), told WTiN.…

Devendra Chawla, group president of food and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) at India’s Future Group, has a clear view of how the Indian branded food sector is and has been developing: while Indian consumers love to try new products, they prefer them to be spiced with some familiar flavours from the past.…

Bangladesh’s top textiles makers are racing against time to alter the way they print fabric. The reason is simple: go digital or risk losing a competitive edge.

Vertically integrated textile manufacturing major Noman Group told Digital Textile that it is carefully considering digital textile investments.…

Five years since the start of the Arab uprisings in 2011, instability is still impacting cosmetics sales in the Levant and north Africa. Last year saw a slight improvement on overall sales in 2014, the year the Islamic State spread through northern Iraq and Syria, but figures are down on 2013, and the growth projected in 2010, according to figures from market researcher Euromonitor International and estimates from cosmetics companies.…

An unofficial ban on the import of raw textile materials from Turkey has left Russian textile enterprises struggling to find alternative supplies among local manufacturers and maintain their production cycles. The situation has escalated so far that Russia’s ministry of industry and trade has recently asked industry representatives to compile a ‘white list’ of Turkish exporters who would be able to continue shipments to Russia, while the government in Moscow weighs the possibility of an official embargo on Turkish textiles.…

A CONSULTANT on the Asia textile and clothing industry has argued that a recent weak performance in Pakistan’s textile export segment should not be a concern for the country’s government, as long as ready-made-garment sales hold up. Indeed, industry expert and partner at Sydney-based Apparel & Textiles Industry (ATI) Group, Paula Rogers, told WTiN that Pakistan has made a strategic oversight by its past focus on textile processing.…

THE PAKISTAN government led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is actively looking for the right minister to steer the textile sector out of its current distress, after former federal minister for the textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi stepped down in March.…

The Pakistan government has reversed a decision to increase a health certification fee charged for assessing meat and meat products, three weeks after it was issued, after meat exporters opposed the move. The federal ministry of national food security and research reversed on April the average 150% increase made on March 31.…

The meat industry in Pakistan is hoping an upcoming government budget will promote investment enabling the sector to hit a government target of doubling the country’s export earnings from the global halal food market by 2018. This would net Pakistan meat exporters USD600 million in annual export proceeds, compared to USD300 million now, according to Pakistan ministry of national food security and research figures.…

American pharmaceutical industry officials and trade groups remain cautiously optimistic that intellectual property (IP) negotiations with India can be resolved to the benefit of both nations’ medicine sectors. For now, however, India remains on a so-called ‘priority watch list’ of nations the US is urging to address key IP protection concerns.…

Sri Lanka’s government remains positive about the possibility of regaining its Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) concession status from the European Union (EU), which would probably boost the country’s knitwear exports. This privileged trade access status might help the country’s clothing industry overall achieve an ambitious target of earning USD8.5 billion from exports by 2020.…

Despite a healthy growth in knitwear exports from Pakistan, the industry is concerned about a potentially harsh government budget, which is expected to be approved in June. There are indications the federal Pakistani government intends to hike sales tax rates from 2% to 5% on exports; impose a gas infrastructure development charge on businesses; and withdraw existing special subsidies that have benefited the knitwear sector.…

China will build its first high altitude airport in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, located on the border of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, providing access to the remote but strategically important area. It will be constructed near Tashkurgan city, where Civil Aviation Engineering Consulting Company of China experts have recently visited three shortlisted locations.…

IN a fast-growing emerging economy such as Bangladesh, companies and consumers alike can sometimes play fast-and-loose with the truth to hide financial wrongdoing and commit frauds, but they will have to reckon with Bangladesh’s Comptroller and Auditor General Masud Ahmed and his staff.…

Bangladesh’s top auditor understands only too well the key role strong auditing can play in an emerging economy such as his own country – for good or ill. Indeed, he does not mince his words when he recalls the role auditors played in Bangladesh’s 2011 capital market collapse that ruined millions of small investors.…

Pakistan has launched disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) signalling it wants to challenge countervailing duties imposed by the European Union (EU) on Pakistani exports of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In an unusual case brought by Pakistan against the EU, Islamabad is arguing that the European Commission mishandled an investigation prompting EU ministers to impose protective measures, compensating European PET-makers for Pakistan government tax breaks and subsidies.…

A PLANNED free trade agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Pakistan will be a ‘win-win’ situation overall, according to a senior Turkish government official involved in the negotiations. When asked about the current status of the deal, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told WTiN.com:…

Pakistani meat exporters are optimistic that the Iranian government will lift an import ban imposed in early 2014 on Pakistan-produced meat following a meeting on Wednesday (April 22) between the country’s trade ministers.
Khurram Dastagir Khan, Pakistan’s commerce minister and Mohammed Reza Nematzadeh, Iran’s minister for industry, mines and trade met in Tehran at a scheduled session of the Pakistan Iran joint trade committee.…

Bangladesh’s knitting industry faces key changes in the next 20 years as the western-educated children of first-generation businessmen take over family-owned firms. Industry experts note that some second-generation entrepreneurs have already taken the reins of major knitwear companies and are introducing modern management practices and discovering new financing channels.…

THE PAKISTAN government has told the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it will proactively seek foreign direct investment (FDI) for its clothing and textile sector as it seeks to leverage its GSP+ preferential trade access to the European Union (EU).
In a statement following the conclusion of a WTO trade policy review on Pakistan, Islamabad said: “There is bright potential for FDI in power, liquefied natural gas (LNG), gas, infrastructure development and petro-chemicals’ sectors.…

THE MIDDLE Eastern halal meat market is anticipating significant growth in the next few years, driven by rising populations and rising consumer awareness about food content. However, the lack of a common global halal standard is hindering the market’s potential, given that the region is heavily dependent on imports from non-Muslim countries.…

PAKISTAN has been improving its anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime according to international watchdogs, while its military takes increasingly tough action against hardline Islamist groups.
For instance, Pakistan has drawn up a 20-point National Action Plan (NAP), agreed upon by Pakistan’s political and military leadership to fight terrorism; this has helped focus further attention on the need to tackle money laundering and terror financing as part of a comprehensive law-and-order strategy.…

With Bangladesh’S economy set to continue growing and local cotton production expected to remain insignificant, cotton imports are set to double by 2021, said industry players and experts attending the country’s first Global Cotton Summit. The two-day event (March 20-21) in Dhaka, was jointly organised by the Bangladesh Cotton Association (BCA) and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA).…

THE PAKISTAN government has launched a diplomatic offensive to improve trade relations with Turkey, which it hopes will enable its textile sector to win back Turkish market share lost after Turkey initiated safeguard measures against Pakistani textile products in 2011. Turkey introduced a special high 42.2% safeguard tariff (called MHF Cess) on Pakistani knitwear and textile garment exports to protect its industry.…

Pakistan’s ministry of textile industry has begun implementing a textile industrial policy for 2014-2019, despite concerns by manufacturers’ associations that it may fail to deliver on its goals. The ministry has set up committees to work toward achieving its targets and interacting with the industry to seek its input and support.…

The Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporter Associations (ITKIB) told WTiN.com this week that research and development in high value technical textiles will be a key focus for the Turkish textile sector as it aims for an export target of USD 20 billion by 2023.…

THE PAKISTAN government has released its long awaited 2014-19 textile industrial policy, which includes a target of doubling the country’s overall annual textile and clothing industry exports to USD26 billion by 2019.
Pakistan’s federal minister for textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi and his ministry’s top official secretary Amir M Khan Marwat have announced the government will spend Pakistan Rupees PKR64.15 billion (USD632 million) on working towards this this goal until 2019.…

The United States’ African Growth & Opportunity Act (AGOA) has helped boost many African countries’ apparel and textile sector, giving them duty-free and quota-free access to the US market. And while many are keen to see the act renewed before its expiration this September 30, some countries have benefited more than others.…

The new Sri Lankan government has started negotiations with the European Union (EU) in a bid to re-secure membership of Europe’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP +) scheme. If successful, the move would see EU tariffs fall for Sri Lankan clothing and textile exports.…

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has stalled a bid by Pakistan to launch a World Trade Organisation (WTO) case focused on its complaints about against EU countervailing duties levied on certain Pakistani PET (polyethylene terephthalate) exports.
EU diplomats used their right to block the establishment of a disputes panel to adjudicate the row, at a meeting yesterday (Monday Feb 23) of the WTO disputes settlement body (DSB).…

India and Pakistan are trying to remove barriers that are hindering the trade of cotton and textile between these two neighbouring countries, however deep-rooted historic and political resentments continue to hinder progress.
These have helped put out of reach a major trade deal that would sweep away import-export barriers, despite the governments of both countries having relatively new electoral mandates.…

The Egyptian textile sector is a mixed bag, succeeding in certain sub-sectors and struggling in others, while failing to add value to its core strength in cotton production. It has managed to weather the ongoing political instability, but exports are weak due to lower demand from Europe, and the overall sector is straining to keep up with global competition.…

THE PAKISTAN government has released its long awaited 2014-19 textile industrial policy, which includes a target of doubling the country’s overall annual textile and clothing industry exports to USD26 billion by 2019.
Pakistan’s federal minister for textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi and his ministry’s top official secretary Amir M Khan Marwat have announced the government will spend Pakistan Rupees PKR64.15 billion (USD632 million) on working towards this this goal until 2019.…

THE EUROPEAN Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has warned airlines to “exercise extreme caution if planning to fly into, out of, within or above Pakistan airspace,” because of increased risks of ground-based terrorist attacks on planes.

A EASA safety information bulletin cites a AIC France circular issued by DGAC-France requiring French operators not to fly in Pakistan airspace (OPLR – Lahore and FIR OPKR – Karachi) below flight level 240 (around 7,400 metres in altitude).…

Pakistan’s minister for the textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi has said the country’s delayed, but still upcoming, five-year textile policy will cater to the needs of the nonwoven textile sector, as it has the potential to grow.

Talking to WTiN.com,…

THE CREATION of a consultative textile and clothing ‘buyers’ forum’ in Pakistan, linking brands with manufacturers, government and unions, has moved a step closer following an international meeting staged in Islamabad.
This first ‘buyers’ meeting’, was held on December 15 and 16, organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Dutch and Pakistan governments.…

Pakistan has launched disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) signalling it wants to challenge countervailing duties imposed by the European Union (EU) on Pakistani exports of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In an unusual case brought by Pakistan against the EU, Islamabad is arguing that the European Commission mishandled an investigation prompting EU ministers to impose protective measures, compensating European PET-makers for Pakistan government tax breaks and subsidies.…

A sustained campaign by an influential textile lobby has persuaded the Pakistan government to revive a federal Textile Board advisory panel after it has lain dormant for eight years. The board has been charged with focusing on the key challenges now facing the industry.…

A FORMER secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has roundly condemned environmental health controls at the main slaughterhouse for Karachi, the country’s largest metropolitan area, home to more than 20 million people. Dr Shershah Syed told globalmeatnews.com that the Landhi slaughterhouse “is the worst you can imagine”.…

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to work with the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to help south Asian nations slow the spread of livestock diseases.

In India, livestock sector losses from foot-and-mouth disease alone are estimated at around USD4.5 billion a year, according to the ADB.…

DESPITE the huge risks involved in states funding weapons of mass destruction in breach of international non-proliferation rules, this problem has not received the same attention as anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) in compliance regimes. Only over the past two years has world’s senior AML body the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) started to address shortcomings, while the United Nations is moving from a decade of awareness building to pushing implementation.…

GHANA continues to be recognised as one of Africa’s success stories. The country remains relatively peaceful and stable, and its economy has grown at an annual average of around 6% over the past six years. As a result, it is maybe not a surprise that Ghana was ranked healthily at 5.88 (10 being the worst score) in the 2014 Basel Anti-Money Laundering index, among the lowest in west Africa, only bettered by established democracy Senegal, with 5.43.…

THE FINANCIAL Action Task Force (FATF) has warned Iran it faces tighter international scrutiny of its financial services and dealings, should it fail to criminalise terrorist financing and boost its suspicious transaction reporting (STR) requirements.

In its latest assessment of jurisdictions failing to comply with FATF anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) recommendations, the global AML body singled out the Islamic republic, giving Tehran until February (2015) to make reforms, or face the consequences.…

Pakistan is gearing up to launch a vocational training programme to train 120,000 male and female workers over a period of five years to acquire skills required in the country’s economically important textile industry.

Pakistan’s minister for the textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi told the WTiN.com…

THE STRENGTH and diversity of Bangladesh knitwear producers’ supply chains is one reason why this key outsourcing location is so popular with international brands. And indeed, attention to the supply chain is the mantra of Bangladesh knitwear boss Mohammed Abdul Jabbar.…

A COLLABORATION between a major Pakistan food company and local non-governmental organisation (NGO) aimed at improving the country’s slaughterhouse standards is set to expand sales abroad.
Pakistan’s Al-Khidmat Foundation, a conservative social welfare organisation, has so far contributed USD2.9 million to maintaining a Karachi slaughterhouse facility run by Tata Best Foods Ltd that complies with international food safety standards.…

BANGLADESH’S textiles and knitwear exporters are confident they will see off the challenge posed by the country’s key regional rival Pakistan, which is benefiting from the European Union’s (EU) Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP Plus) status.

With these low tariff benefits, the Bangladeshi industry – whose country also has privileged access to the EU market though its ‘everything but arms’ duty free status – has concern about their exports of home textiles to the EU.…

THE PAKISTAN Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER) says they intend to file a lawsuit in the European courts against a German firm, in relation to the death of over 250 people in a fire at the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Baldia, Karachi, on September 11, 2012.…

PAKISTAN’S ministry of textile industry has claimed that textile and clothing exports to the European Union (EU) has increased by 18% from January-June 2014 increased by 18% compared to last year following its membership of the revised EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) for low tariffs.…

Taiwan’s main airport, Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, is to undergo a major expansion, increasing its annual passenger capacity from 32 million to 60 million by 2030. Located halfway between the capital Taipei and the island’s industrial heartland along its western coast, the airport is planned to become the centerpiece of the government’s highly ambitious Taoyuan Aerotropolis project, which with an estimated investment of Taiwan New Dollar TWD600 billion (USD20 billion).…

Pakistan’s minister for the textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi has told WTiN.com that efforts were being made to attract Chinese investment in a proposed Karachi ‘Textile City’, which would be formally launched in September 2014.  In an exclusive interview, he said: “The government has acquired 1,250 acres land for the project at the Port Qasim, in Karachi, land-levelling has been done and we are hoping to make available water and electricity there in the next one-and-a-half months before supplying it natural gas,” he added.…

INDIAN knitwear manufacturers are hoping for a major growth impetus because of industry-friendly policies being rolled out by the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government. “We are very optimistic about the new government,” Naval Saraf, proprietor of Super Knit Industries, a sock manufacturing company in Mumbai told Knitting International.…

THE UNITED States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is to go into force on July 1. Aimed at curbing tax evasion by US citizens around the world, foreign financial institutions (FFIs) are required to report on US account holders, but over 200,000 FFIs and 123 countries have not yet signed up.…

Pakistan’s minister for textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi has said his government’s proposed textile policy for 2014-2019 is designed to generate additional textile and clothing exports worth USD3 billion during the next two years.

In an interview with WTiN.com, he said a revised five-year textile policy would be presented to the cabinet for approval in August.…

There are fewer than 1,000 certified accountants in Afghanistan, of which less than 200 are Afghanistan in a country of 29.82 million says the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), and there are no national accounting regulations. More than 30 years of conflict has left the country’s economy in shambles, and with foreign troops being withdrawn by 2016, developing the accountancy sector and its domestic regulations is a priority to underpin sustainable growth.…

JAPANESE food manufacturers are targeting south-east Asia as key export markets, leveraging their products’ sophisticated, fashionable and healthy image. Indeed, with a significant proportion of south-east Asian consumers becoming richer, the perception that Japanese brands can be relatively expensive can help marketing and certainly not harm sales, they say.…

Global technology analysts Gartner Inc is well known for its articulated predictions. An announcement in January 2014 to accompany its report on ‘Predicts 2014: The Rise of the Postmodern ERP and Enterprise Applications World’, highlighted the complex, and at times conflicting scenario facing companies considering moving their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to the cloud.…

PAKISTAN’S textile sector will grow only gradually following its membership of the European Union (EU) GSP+ scheme, according to Dr Safdar Sohail, economic minister at the Pakistan mission to the EU. Speaking to WTiN.com in an exclusive interview from his office in Brussels, Dr Sohail said: “There will be no surge of demand where one would imagine people would start stitching garments in garages and nothing of the sort.”…

Opinion is divided in Pakistan over whether the government’s appointment of the retired Major General Zaheer Ahmed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) will boost the viability of the ailing steel-maker.

Dr Salman Shah, former finance minister under a liberal-led government between 2004 and 2008, told Steel First investment worth billions is needed to revive the PSM, and the current conservative government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif does not have that kind of money.…

The shipbuilding director for the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) has confirmed to Steel First that his government is seeking to influence the European Union (EU) as it clarifies the rules of its shipbreaking regulation, which came into force last December (2013).…

Pakistan’s steel billet-based shape production sector is in poor shape and reeling from competition posed by the country’s strong ship-breaking sector, a senior executive has told Steel First. Noting the repeated suspension of production of melting units using steel billets in the past year, Abbas Akberali, CEO of Amreli Steels Limited, which accounts for 10% to 12% of Pakistan’s steel bar production said: “The primary threat to the nation’s steel melting industry are the tax anomalies between the ship breaking and steel melting sector, which allows the ship breaking sector to generate sub-standard steel products at much cheaper cost than the steel melters’ costs and prevents further investment in the steel melting industry.”…

Despite being a traditional livestock country, Afghanistan is no longer self-sufficient due to more than three decades of conflict and is now dependent on meat imports. Afghanistan imports of chicken and cattle have exploded between 2002 and 2011, according to the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organisation.…

Shifting sourcing is becoming increasingly complex for apparel and textile manufacturers as they set greater production standards and create ever more complex supply chains. To switch suppliers efficiently and ensure that they can meet these requirements, companies must inform themselves of the political and cultural issues in the supplier’s region, and clearly communicate their goals to a new manufacturer.…

Serious negotiations in a much-vaunted and debated trade deal between India and Pakistan, which could significantly boost the textile trade between the two neighbours, have been shelved due to the impending Indian elections, WTiN.com has been told.

“The Pakistanis had second thoughts in going ahead while knowing that there will be a change in government [in India] and they could have to start from the scratch,” said Dr Nisha Taneja, a professor at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi, “My expectation is that it would be done four months after [the new government takes over in] May.”…

ALTHOUGH two-thirds of vaccine research and development (R&D) globally is carried out by European firms, manufacturers in China, India and Brazil are becoming increasingly muscular and “moving from dependency to self-sufficiency” experts at a two-day conference in Brussels on vaccine research heard last week.…

AIRPORTS in Pakistan are adding security measures as they face the constant threat of terrorist attacks. The terminal facing the largest threat is Bacha Khan International Airport, in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which has been a centre of a series of terrorist and insurgent attacks.…

Nearly 18 months since Australian exporters voluntarily suspended sheep exports to Bahrain, the CEO of the Australian Live Exporters’ Council Alison Penfold has told globalmeatnews.com that Australian exporters are keen to resume trading: “Bahrain is a market we value very highly.…

Sri Lanka could be relaxing its restrictions on foreign investment in the steel industry as construction projects aimed at building 35,000 hotel rooms across the country by 2016 get underway.  Its government announced last June that it would curtail steel-related foreign investments to encourage local manufacturers to create locally-owned steel-making capacity, but the hotel-fuelled construction boom is generating demand that local manufacturers may struggle to meet.…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry is going to secure over USD1 billion worth of orders from the recently concluded Heimtextil exhibition in Germany, the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has predicted.

A spokesman told WTiN.com that the figure represents a “40 per cent jump in the number of orders” compared with the last year, and said the boom in orders is “fully attributed” to the country’s eligibility to the European Union’s (EU) GSP+ trade scheme.…

Clothing and textile industry disasters in the past year-and-a-half including fires and building collapses at factories in countries including Bangladesh and Pakistan have pushed companies to expand their definition of ‘safe’ suppliers to include more ethical and social standards. Yet, despite, brands’ desire to monitor more operations, the fragmented organisation of standards around the world remains a key challenge.…

BANGLADESH is far from being the only emerging market outsourcer that has had problems with factory safety and auditing. Elsewhere in Asia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and especially Cambodia have had their own problems.

Indeed Cambodia has been wracked by industrial disputes overworking conditions in its textile and clothing sector.…

INDIAN publishers are adopting a smarter more holistic approach to fight book piracy and are focusing on awareness campaigns to tackle the problem.

“Educational authorities like the ministry of human resource development and other stakeholders should join hands with publishers to make people understand that there is some sanctity to copyrighted knowledge, which should be respected,” said Mr Sesh Seshadri, secretary of The Association of Publishers in India (API).…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

SOURCING in Asia has been a merry-go-round for many buyers in recent years. As the era of low-cost Chinese manufacturing draws more or less to a close, several countries have leveraged their low cost labour to capture a significant volume of the world’s lower end knitwear manufacturing, while others have sought to extend their reach into higher value-added manufacturing by investing in infrastructure and training.…

A call by India’s textiles minister for a higher rebate on duties paid on garment exports to the European Union (EU) will probably be refused by the country’s finance ministry, industry representatives have told just-style.

Darshan Lal Sharma, a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Committee on Textiles and a director of Vardhman Textiles, said it would be “really a challenge” to get an increased drawback approved when there was pressure to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit.…

PAKISTAN and India are negotiating an enhanced textile trade agreement to fuel their mutual economic growth and investment, Khurram Dastagir Khan, Pakistan’s minister for commerce and textile industry has told WTiN.com.

During a visit to New Delhi, with a 70-member business delegation last week (Thursday), Mr Khan said that, “the enhancement and facilitation of trade through Wagha [India and Pakistan’s key road border crossing] is under active negotiation.”…

THE PAKISTAN government has started acquiring 1,562 acres of land near Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s most populous and main cotton producing province, Punjab, for a proposed major garments manufacturing centre.

Major General (Retd) Javed Iqbal, chief executive officer of the Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company (PIEDMC), which is developing this so-called ‘garments city’ and some other industrial estates in the province, said that a pre-feasibility study has now been completed.…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

THE PUBLICATION in October 2013 of the latest international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report on ‘hawala’ and other similar service providers (HOSSPs) has shed light on such alternative money remittance systems. These remain a complex area for anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) authorities to address. …

THE HIGHLY diverse and emerging markets of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) face major challenges in bringing financial services, accounting and auditing up to international standards. They are often lacking qualified professionals and sometimes overly reliant on expatriate expertise.…

THE AGREEMENT by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to reduce import-export red tape may lead to a seismic shift in the global automotive sector, an industry expert has told wardsauto.

Peter Cooke, the emeritus professor of automotive management at Britain’s University of Buckingham, said that major emerging markets without a substantial auto sector may create capacity because of the deal.…

Chinese and Pakistani textile and clothing industry associations have taken the first step to explore the possibility of setting up joint ventures in Pakistan by forming a working group for providing match-making services to the prospective investors.

“The joint working group held its first meeting when a large Chinese delegation visited Pakistan in August 2013 and held talks with the Pakistan government officials and the textile industry leadership,” the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Group Leader Gohar Ejaz told WTiN.com.…

Botswana’s first private university, the Malaysian-owned Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (Limkokwing Botswana), has continued to flex its muscles in this diamond-rich Southern Africa nation, taking advantage of a fast growing tertiary education sector. Botswana’s college and university student (aged 18-24) enrollment has grown from 11.4% in 2007/08 to 16.4% in 2012, or 46,613 students.…

PAKISTAN garment manufacturers are anticipating significant trading benefits from an anticipated accession from January 2014 to the European Union’s (EU) new Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trading scheme.

Some are asking the Pakistan government to relax import duties blocking access to raw materials, especially artificial fibre, needed to diversify product lines so that they can take full advantage of the facility.…

While small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan’s knitwear sector have significant manufacturing capacity, they have yet to harness their full potential, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Pakistan exported USD2.3 billion’s worth of knitwear in 2011 says the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, and many producers are small.…

THE COMBINED apparel market of China and India will grow to USD740 billion by 2025 and will surpass the projected combined US and European market of USD725 billion at that time, according to a textile and apparel sector report released at an international clothing conference on Friday (July 19).…

PAKISTAN’S anticipated membership of a revised European Union (EU) Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) from January has sparked a debate over whether the country’s industry is ready to benefit from the duty-free access the system provides.

Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) senior north zone vice-chairman Jawwad A Chaudhry has argued that Pakistan’s garment industry might not fulfill orders because of a shortage of raw materials.…

THE MALDIVES may best be known a tropical paradise with rare beauty, but this south Asian archipelago is also a hotbed for terror financing and money laundering, analysts fear. The country is now attempting to strengthen weak anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws that have created a “magnet effect for foreign organisations to pour money into local extremist groups,” warned Jean-Charles Brisard, US based terrorism financing expert and former chief investigator for the 9/11 families’ lawsuits against Al Qaeda financiers.…

MEXICO’S new president Enrique Peña Nieto, who came to office in December 2012, promised a less militaristic fight against the country’s increasingly violent drug trade, so his government’s implementation of a new anti-money laundering (AML) law will be watched closely.

Past president Felipe Calderón launched a severe military-led crackdown against the country’s drug cartels towards the end of 2006, around 80,000 people have since been killed in drug-related violence since.…

WHETHER improved transparency in clothing supply chains will be enough to guarantee a sustainable future for outsourcers in south Asia remains to be seen, but a conference staged in Sri Lanka last week (Oct 10) heard plenty of calls for improved openness.…

AN INTERNATIONAL clothing and textile conference has heard how the growing retail market in the Asia-Pacific region may enable emerging economies such as Sri Lanka to realise ambitious dreams to become regional production hubs.

Kurt Cavano – founder/vice chairman & chief strategy officer of cloud computing company GT Nexus addressing the South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum, held in Colombo on October 12, noted: “The top six retailers that are growing are not in North America, it is in the Asia Pacific.…

Any market and industry benefits from supply diversification, so major textile and clothing companies can take heart from continued innovation amongst fibre and fabric producers over sourcing. This extends, for instance, to sourcing material from unusual places such as milk and fishing nets, while creating more opportunities for traditional sources such as flax.…

HIGH tech innovators in sportswear and outdoor equipment are developing fabrics and garments that do more and perform better, from health monitoring to slowing the effects of aging. Many inventions spring from unlikely source materials, for instance waste milk. And for sports, manufacturers have to be especially clever – ensuring their innovations avoid creating uncompetitive advantages that break sporting rules.…

A PARTNER at advisors McKinsey has argued that Bangladesh’s advantages in low cost and convenience for brands will ensure its clothing and textile sector keeps growing, despite the Rana Plaza disaster.

Dr Achim Berg led a study released at last week’s World Fashion Convention, Shanghai, which concluded that about 72% of the total 29 chief purchasing officers (CPO) surveyed are planning to move orders from China to other Asian countries in the next five years, although China will still remain as the largest sourcing market.…

Pakistan’s textile industry has largely remained detached from the industry and the markets of its neighbour India and the hostile relations between the two nations improve, their textile industries stand to benefit immensely: “There could be a huge intra-industry trade between the two countries,” said Dr Pravakar Sahoo, associate professor at the Institute of Economic Growth at the University of Delhi.…

THE PAKISTAN textile sector is anticipating a bumper cotton harvest due to the favourable weather conditions in the main cotton-growing Punjab and Sindh provinces. Government officials and textile industry representatives said timely rains would boost output. A report from the government’s cotton crop assessment committee has said Pakistan was likely to produce 13.255 million bales (of 170 kilograms each) in the fiscal year of 2014, ensuring cotton production would rise by 1.68 million bales, or 14.52%, compared to the 11.57 million bales produced in the fiscal year 2013.…

PAKISTAN meat sector executives believe their export sector is underperforming, failing especially to seize sales in affluent international halal markets.

With an estimated annual output of 2.2 million tonnes, Pakistan is the 19^th largest producer of meat in the world.…

BANGLADESH is planning to import 200,000 tonnes of cotton annually from Uzbekistan in a new multi-annual deal to be finalised shortly. Negotiations are underway to set its terms in a Memorandum of Understanding between the two governments, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Atiqul Islam told just-style.…

OFFICIALS at Britain’s tax and customs agency HMRC admitted this week that one of the latest additions to their online gallery of ‘Most Wanted’ tax evaders slipped the net after being convicted on May 3 of Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud.…

THE BIG question for mobile operators today is how to make an honest buck tomorrow, when Internet connectivity is getting so fast, over-the-top (OTT) service providers are becoming increasingly competitive. Some specialists predict operators will essentially become utilities, offering basic network services, leaving the cream to content and OTT companies.…

THE PAKISTAN textile sector is anticipating a bumper cotton harvest due to the favourable weather conditions in the main cotton-growing Punjab and Sindh provinces. Government officials and textile industry representatives said timely rains would boost output. A report from the government’s cotton crop assessment committee has said Pakistan was likely to produce 13.255 million bales (of 170 kilograms each) in the fiscal year of 2014, ensuring cotton production would rise by 1.68 million bales, or 14.52%, compared to the 11.57 million bales produced in the fiscal year 2013.…

political and judicial authorities have taken action to slow the smuggling of cattle from Pakistan to Afghanistan, and Iran because of growing public discontent about the rising prices of meat in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. They border these two neighbouring countries.…

THE INDIAN apparel industry has made progress with backward integration over last five years but exporters rely too heavily on refunds of custom duties when re-exporting apparel based on fabrics and fibres bought outside the country, a Li & Fung India executive told a New Delhi conference on Friday (July 19).…

THE INDIAN cotton textile industry has increased its global competitiveness over the last decade, but still its exports have not shown the corresponding results, said a report compiled by Zurich-based consultancy agency Gherzi. Entitled ‘Cost Benchmarking Study – India vis-à–vis Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, China, Pakistan and Turkey’, it was commissioned by the Indian Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council and released in New Delhi last week (July 25).…

PAKISTAN’S textile industry – often referred to as the backbone of Pakistan’s economy – is suffering from a severe energy crisis caused by frequent power cuts and gas shortages.

The crisis is most severe in Pakistan’s most populous province Punjab. Shahzad Ali Khan, chairman of the Punjab chapter of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), said the textile industry had never faced a crisis of such proportions.…

The European Parliament’s environment committee has backed the new law provisionally agreed between European Parliament negotiators and European Union (EU) member states on improving the environmental and working standards for scrapping EU-owned ships. Under a planned EU regulation, such ships would have to be dismantled in ship recycling facilities listed by the EU as meeting specific requirements, and are certified and regularly inspected.…

newly elected government, led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is considering abolishing and merging a number of ministries, including the Ministry of Textile Industry.  This was one of the first policy reforms presented to officials for assessment by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after winning the May 11 general.…

PAKISTAN has strengthened its anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) laws and institutions but still faces huge challenges to fight dirty money flows stemming from its large black economy, corruption, tax evasion, smuggling, political conflicts of interest and its role as a conduit for drug trafficking and terrorists.…

INVESTORS have shown faith in the long term prospects of the Bangladesh clothing and textile sector, with four garment factories costing nearly USD50 million to build starting operations in Bangladesh’s Comilla Export Processing Zone this year (EPZ), its general manager MD Abdus Sobhan told just-style.…

EASTERN European textile and clothing companies used to have a cost advantage in serving wealthy western European markets, but that has long been eclipsed by Asian competition – added value technical textiles may offer them a sustainable future.

In Poland’s hard-pressed textile industry, its fast-growing technical branch may constitute the future of the national industry, experts in the country’s industry say.…

THE RECENT industrial accidents that have marred the reputation of Bangladesh’s knitwear outsourcing industry have increased the pressure on the small firms in the sector to merge so they can improve investment in equipment and premises.

Last year’s Tazreen Fashions fire and the factory collapse in April have prompted questions in the global knitwear sector about its “race to the bottom” low cost gambit, unleashing public outrage and calls for improved factory conditions and better safety regulations.   …

AFTER many false starts and delays, Pakistan appears to be finally ready to expand its bagasse and biomass co-generation output by persuading the 83 sugar mills in the country to start production of electricity on commercial basis. The government is planning incentives such as an attractive upfront power purchase tariff and help in capital financing.…

THE EVER-CHANGING sourcing equation is a challenge to the global garment and textile industry supply chain. There is talk of moving production back home to western countries – bringing it closer to market- but its viability is being questioned. Meanwhile in Asia, where the majority of clothes are currently produced worldwide, the sourcing landscape is changing, experts say.…

A REGULATION aimed at ensuring the rollout of broadband networks across the European Union (EU) is achieved more cheaply and swiftly has been proposed by the European Commission. It tries to force member states to ensure new buildings are broadband ready, while telling incumbent telcos to give access to their physical networks to broadband service providers.…

IN recent years Ethiopia’s knitwear industry has experienced a boom. As well as several major companies, including Primark, Tesco, and H&M now sourcing knitwear from Ethiopia, some Asia-based factory owners have moved production to Ethiopia, and various domestically-owned plants are developing.…

The Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) has lambasted its government’s new tax regime, saying it will “adversely affect” the country’s textile exporters, who are already reeling from a series of damaging power cuts.  On February 28, the Pakistan government increased a withholding tax on imports of inputs from 1% to 5%.…

GHANA’S Kotoka International Airport (KIA) has been making the news for all the wrong reasons, from accounts of a brawl breaking out between different security services at the airport; to the interception of a shipment of Ghanaian plantain stuffed with cocaine reported by UK officials.…

PAKISTANI cotton spinners have lost the opportunity to sell thousands of tonnes of cotton yarn to China, hindered by severe power shortages, just-style has been told. Mahesh Kumar, President of Pakistan’s Cotton Ginners’ Association said: “For two months in the winter there was hardly any electricity for the industry in the state of Punjab where 75% of our spinning mills are based.”…

SLOW growth in Pakistan’s construction and industrial sectors in 2012 dampened domestic demand for paint and coatings, putting the industry in a difficult position.

Industry sources told the Asia Pacific Coatings Journal that the sector has also been weakened by the discontinuation of the national voucher-based ‘token scheme’ in the decorative paint category.…

THE CHINESE government is drafting a new five-year anti-corruption plan for 2013 to 2017, which is expected to increase supervision of lower-ranking Communist party cadres. To be finalised and published before June, the new plan, said a Politburo statement is likely to “intensify supervision of officials’ adherence to various disciplines…” The statement backed more “limits and supervision of officials’ power and campaigns to promote a clean work style at grassroots levels…”

Other recent international fraud news:

*Global law enforcement representatives and football executives have met for the first time at a conference held to combat match fixing frauds, which generate millions of dollars of illicit gambling revenue for organised crime syndicates.…

ETHIOPIA’S potential as a source of industrial minerals is beginning to be realised, with a growing number of exploration and mining projects underway, and rapidly increasing foreign investment.
To date, its Ministry of Mines has granted 72 industrial minerals exploration licenses – 61 to foreign companies, eight to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and three to local companies; and 52 mining licenses – 28 to foreign companies, 17 to Ethiopian/foreign joint ventures, and seven to local companies.…

Pakistan’s shipbreaking industry has started talks with the Pakistani government over how it can comply with the International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, whose rules come into force in 2015. The chairman of the Pakistan Ship Breakers Association has told Steel First that he has met with officials to discuss measures for implementing the treaty: “We are ready to take steps to protect and promote the ship breaking industry,” declared Deewan Rizwan Farooqui.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

WINNERS

Bangladesh

Despite its well-trailed labour and environmental problems, analysts still backed Bangladesh as having the potential to become a long term apparel sourcing hotspot. Indeed, ready-made garment exports could triple within a decade, as buyers move sourcing away from China, according to research by McKinsey & Company.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A FEDERAL American grand jury has indicted two Pakistanis on charges alleging they operated Internet sites that illegally shipped pharmaceuticals from Britain and Pakistan to customers worldwide, including the USA. The charges allege that since 2005 Sheikh Waseem Ul Haq, 39, and Tahir Saeed, 50, illegally shipped USD2 million of pharmaceuticals, selling nearly USD780,000 in the USA.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

The chief executive officer of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) has told Steel First his company is seeking an advance on agreed Pakistan government bailout funds agreed this July. Retired Major General Muhammad Javed stressed the company was not seeking fresh subsidies, but needed a second Pakistan Rupees PKR5.40 billion (USD56.2 million), tranche of the PKR14.6 billion (USD151 million) approved by the cabinet’s economic coordination committee.…

BY CARMEN PAUN IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN Commission is hoping that the recent overhaul of the European Union’s (EU) Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) will increase the flow of rare earth metals and aluminium oxide into the EU. Concerns persist about supplies of these important industrial minerals.…

BY MICHAEL STEIN, IN PRAGUE; AND RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Senior government officials in the Pakistan province of Sindh have told Steel First they are keenly awaiting the promised launch of a Czecho-Pakistani project to build a CZK6.1 billion (USD320 million) private steelworks facility in Pakistan.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO

Bangladesh has scrapped 203 ships so far this year, making it the largest number ever in the history of its thriving ship breaking industry, the Bangladesh Ship Breaker’s Association (BSBA) secretary Nazmul Islam has told Steel First.

In 2010 Bangladesh scrapped only 75 ships, and the number improved to 145 in 2011 before it shot up to 203 in this year so far.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

GYPSUM producers and users have been key beneficiaries of the slow liberalisation of trade controls between India and Pakistan, Industrial Minerals can report. The Wagah border post linking the Indian state and Pakistani province of Punjab – a region divided in 1947 when Indian and Pakistan became independent, now processes a roaring trade in Pakistani gypsum.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

10 SEPTEMBER 2012

MOROCCO, Tunisia, and Egypt – respectively the sixth, seventh and sixteenth largest exporters of knitwear to the European Union’s 27 member states, as measured by sales value – have traditionally been competitive knitwear producers and exporters.…

BY CARMEN PAUN, IN BRUSSELS

THE EUROPEAN textiles industry has expressed concern about the potential impact of an EU decision, approved Thursday by the European Parliament, to waive import fees for textiles from Pakistan.

"This measure will not help the population in need…and will have an impact on the EU textile industry and especially on the cotton one," said Luisa Santos, head of international trade at the EU’s textile association, Euratex.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, IN NEW DELHI

India’s fast growing personal care products industry – particularly its cosmetics portion – is waking up to the major potential of the country’s rural and semi-urban markets. Major players are targeting these new aspiring consumers with innovative campaigns and targeted products and are set to reap handsome returns.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

DESPITE the global recession, and volatility in the dairy market as a whole, the international butter industry is anticipating long-term growth. Used as a spread, a condiment, or as an important ingredient in baking and cooking, demand for butter has been a significant constant in the global food industry.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) has added its voice to growing demands that the Pakistani government combats duty evasion by importers of Chinese-made boron added alloy wire rod, which is being imported illicitly as non-alloy carbon wire rod.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Steel First has been told by Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Chief Executive Officer Major General Mohammad Javed that there are no plans to sell off the ailing state-owned industrial giant, backing up recent comments from Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Retired Major General Mohammad Javed, chief executive officer of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), has said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the governments of Pakistan and Russia where Moscow would help PSM’s expand production capacity from 1.1 million to 1.5 million tonnes per annum.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

The Pakistan government is considering a demand from ailing state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to exempt local iron ore from a 16% sales tax, ban its export or impose an export duty on its sale abroad.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Karachi joint venture Aisha Steel Mills, Karachi, is planning to increase annual production of cold rolling coil (CRC) to 450,000 tonnes per annum in the next three years from an existing 220,000 tonnes, following a successful share sale.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

Pakistan’s steel sector has welcomed the relief offered by its government through reducing the sales tax paid on electricity used to produce steel billets, ingots and mild steel products. Irshad Mowjee, owner of a steel re-rolling mill in Karachi, said the decision would help curtail the cost of production and benefit both steel-makers and consumers.…

BY POORNA RODRIGO, IN LONDON

Demolition prices for older ships have fallen by a quarter in 2012, signaling a "historical drop" shipbroking, chartering and sale major Braemar Seascope’s research director told Steel First. He urged ship owners to scrap elderly candidates immediately and claim its "end of life bonus" as freight market would remain weak over the next two years.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

The Pakistan Iron and Steel Merchants Association (PISMA) is continuing to press or a 20% uniform customs duty on Pakistani imports of steel products, despite its calls being ignored in the recent Pakistan budget.

The association says the duty is needed to help protect the domestic industry from international price fluctuations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CHAIRMAN of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA) wants his government to pull back from allowing Indian medicine exporters to sell India-approved medicines in Pakistan from January 2013. Muhammad Asad told Pakistani journalists he feared his members would suffer from India being given ‘most favoured nation’ status under world trade law next year – a step agreed by Pakistan’s cabinet in December.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFAI

AFTER a decade of boom in property prices, a downslide is visible in anticipation of the withdrawal of US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan by 2014 and the consequent decrease in international aid; roughly 97% of the war-ravaged country’s gross domestic product according to the World Bank.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

THE PAKISTAN government has shied away from selling off Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in its latest privatisation announcement, with court proceedings and opposition within the company deterring a sale. PSM was not among the 23 public sector banks, insurance firms, electricity supply companies, postal services, hotels, railways, and other concerns listed for inclusion by the government’s Privatisation Commission in a new round of sell-offs beginning in April.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

WHILE Pakistan may suffer from political instability, its paint industry has been registering an average 6%-8% annual growth rate over the past decade due to the country’s expanding automotive and construction sectors. That these key customers are doing well is fortunate, given the fact that the country’s GDP growth in 2010-1 was 2.4% and has been forecast to grow at 3.5%-4.5% only in 2011-12.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

PAKISTAN’S struggling clothing and textile industry, which generates 65% of the country’s total national foreign exchange earnings, is anticipating a significant boost to export sales following the recent World Trade Organisation (WTO) decision to approve waiver allowing 75 Pakistani products duty-free access to European Union (EU) markets for two years.…

DESPITE the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last May, Al Qaeda and its affiliated groups remain a global money laundering and terrorist financing concern. Yet a decade on from the September 11 attacks, counterterrorism specialists say there has been too much focus on Al Qaeda itself (it means The Base in Arabic) but not enough on associated and other militant groups that pose significant threats.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI, IN PESHAWAR

PAKISTAN Steel Mills (PSM) has started stabilising its production after receiving 55,000 metric tonnes of coal from Australia and could make further improvements if it regularly received raw material, a spokesman for the country’s sole mega steel facility said.…

BY LEAH GERMAIN

THE PAKISTAN-BASED Tethyan Copper Company (TCC) is moving forward with their legal proceedings with a Pakistan province following the denial of a mining lease and application. TCC, a joint venture project between Chilean copper producer, Antofagasta and Canada’s Barrick Gold, claims that the provincial government of Baluchistan unlawfully rejected its application to mine the massive Reko Diq project in Chagai Hills of southwest Pakistan.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS AND LENA SMIRNOVA

AFTER 18 years of negotiations, Russia has finally gained approval to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a key diplomatic move that could have profound consequences for the country’s textile market and industry.

A ministerial meeting of the WTO in Geneva anointed Russian accession on December 16, making the country the WTO’s 155th member.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

WINNERS

TUNISIA

Of all the countries disrupted by the Arab Spring revolts in 2011, Tunisia liberated itself in the swiftest and most business-friendly fashion. This key European supplier rid itself of despotic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January14, and one week later, its textile and clothing sector was back at work.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

BANGLADESH will not oppose the European Union’s (EU) plans to grant Pakistan GSP+ status, just-style has been told. However, the country’s powerful clothing exporters have called on their government to press for the EU to withhold these privileges for products that are important to Bangladesh’s manufacturing industry, including some clothing lines.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED Nations has continued to proactively encourage handwashing with soap, staging a Global Handwashing Day in October, with the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF organising events. It said 8 million children in India’s Rajasthan, more than 1 million children in Pakistan,1.7 million children in Afghanistan from 1,700 schools, plus 326,809 Eritrean children in 1,272 schools participated in handwashing events.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THERE is no end to the number of ambitious companies eyeing a slice of the estimated USD10 billion-a-year demand for nuclear power construction and maintenance in China. And in a country known for its favouritism towards local firms in public procurement contracts, one would assume that mainland Chinese companies would get the maximum share of the spoils.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS and WANG FANGQING

THE PURCHASE of yarns, fibres and other materials from developing countries for rich country-controlled garment manufacturing has long been a cost-effective business practice; however, many factors – including high shipping costs, and delays in supplies – have caused companies in recent years to look for a supply chain that is closer to home.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and DAVE YIN

THIS has been the year where the European Union (EU) considered imposing a draconian origin labelling law that would have been a major headache for knitwear manufacturers and retailers. In the winter, the European Parliament was seriously discussing insisting on a regulation forcing knitwear and crocheted clothes and accessories imports into the EU to carry country of origin labels.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

UNDER the United Nations’ Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctions regime, more than 30 states have frozen at least US dollars USD90 million in assets as of September 2010. But Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other designated terrorist groups in the Middle East and Central Asia continue to receive funding despite the region’s widespread adoption of international regulations on anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CTF).…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

AFTER every bomb explosion in and around Peshawar city in northwestern Pakistan,an emergency is declared at the city’s Lady Reading Hospital, named after the wife of a former Viceroy of India.

When this happens, Umia Begum and other nurses in this public hospital are put on standby – it is the destination of most victims of unrest in this strife-torn city.…

BY JULIAN RYALL

JAPAN is being accused of trying to write its own official asbestos testing system into an international standard, because it knows it does not work and so will get its government off the hook for asbestos exposure cases.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

Pakistan tobacco industry rides out floods

Pakistan’s tobacco industry was hit hard by the huge monsoon floods this summer, but it could have been much worse if the floods had come earlier. Much of the tobacco crop had been picked in time.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

THE FLOODS that devastated Pakistan this past summer did not just destroy farmland and housing – they ruined many financial records and legal documents, making life that much harder for accountants in Pakistan. "We don’t know how to deal with the aftermath of the floods because there is still no mechanism on the part of the government or the private sector to cope with the challenges and difficulties that our accounting community is facing," said a senior chartered accountant RafaqatUllah Babar.…

BY RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

THE FLOODS that devastated Pakistan this past summer did not just destroy farmland and housing – they ruined many financial records and legal documents, making life that much harder for accountants in Pakistan. "We don’t know how to deal with the aftermath of the floods because there is still no mechanism on the part of the government or the private sector to cope with the challenges and difficulties that our accounting community is facing," said a senior chartered accountant Rafaqat Ullah Babar.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

RUSSIA is so corrupt, it is regarded as having more graft than earthquake-shattered Haiti, the 2010 corruption perceptions index of Transparency International has declared. It placed Russia at 154th out of 178 countries in its corruption rankings, level with failed narco-state Guinea-Bissau and worse than Haiti (146th) and Pakistan (143th).…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIA’S home ministry has confirmed to the Money Laundering Bulletin that it will approach the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) with formal claims and evidence alleging Pakistan’s key intelligence agency is counterfeiting Indian currency.

A senior official from the ministry said the Indian government would approach the international body in next two to three weeks.…

BY KEITN NUTHALL

30

THE NORTH Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is taking the threat of cyberattacks on business and government computing networks so seriously, it is staging cyberwarfare trials. The world’s strongest military alliance in November held the Cyber Coalition 2010 exercise near Mons, Belgium, and remote locations to test cyber-attack agencies and NATO strategic decision making.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) heads of government have agreed to temporarily remove trade barriers and tariffs impeding Pakistani exports to Europe, helping the country recover from recent devastating floods. A European Council communiqué confirmed a "Firm commitment to grant exclusively to Pakistan increased market access to the EU through the immediate and time-limited reduction of duties on key imports."…

WINNERS

TURKEY

This was the year when Turkey really came into its own. With a well-established and successful clothing and textile industry, supping Europe, Russia and the Middle East, its industry this year laid claim to becoming a fashion centre. August’s Istanbul Fashion Week caught a lot of global attention with 21 catwalk shows, an audience of 40,000, and more than 500 overseas guests.…

18

EUROPEAN chemical industry federation CEFIC has called for a review of administration under European Union (EU) chemical control system REACH to help small-and-medium-sized companies (SMEs) deal with its burden. As the first key REACH chemical deadline of November 30 approaches, CEFIC director general Hubert Mandery has looked ahead to subsequent deadlines, which involve chemicals used in smaller volumes.…

BY MOHAMMED YUSUF

Aga Khan University plans major new Tanzania campus

Mohammed Yusuf

The Aga Khan University – the Pakistan-based international multi-site higher-education institution – is planning to open a new campus in Arusha, Tanzania. The campus would house an arts and science faculties and educate up to 3,000 students from across east Africa.…

BY MARK ROWE

WHEN it comes to palm oil production, there are – despite growing production in South America and west Africa – only two major players on the global stage – Malaysia and Indonesia. Cultivation in south-east Asia accounts for around 80% of the world’s global supply – which in turn reached a record high of 45.9 million tonnes in 2009-2010.…

BY MJ DESCHAMPS

THE EUROPEAN Commission has unveiled its formal proposal for the suspension of European Union (EU) import duties on 75 tariff lines of export items from Pakistan for the next three years, with the aim of boosting EU imports by Euro EUR100 million.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has proposed imposing definitive countervailing duties on imports into the European Union (EU) of certain polyethylene terephthalate (PET) exported from Iran, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The duties – which as usual compensate EU producers for government subsidies or assistance in the exporting countries – would range from 5.1% to 16.7%.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

BOB DYLAN was spot on: "One man’s loss always is another man’s gain." The stringent anti-smoking laws passed in India as a result of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) framework convention on tobacco control’s have stubbed out cigarettes from public places.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

TURKEY’S clothing and textile sector has rebounded this year on the back of strong sales to Europe and emerging markets, with clothing exports up 11% to US dollar USD9.5 billion as of August 2010, and textile exports reaching USD4.1 billion, up 23% on 2009.…

BY MINI PANT ZACHARIAH

BOB DYLAN was spot on: "One man’s loss always is another man’s gain." The stringent anti-smoking laws passed in India as a result of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) framework convention on tobacco control’s have stubbed out cigarettes from public places.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON, MJ DESCHAMPS

IT is the classic chicken and egg scenario. To what extent do widespread networks of fuel filling stations need to be established offering compressed and liquefied natural gas (CNG/LNG) for a mass market of autos using these fuels to develop?…

BY WANG FANGQING

JAPAN’S leading food seasoning manufacturer Ajinomoto Co.,Inc is expanding across Asia and the Middle East. In Jakarta, Indonesia, Ajinomoto is building a new plant at about Japanese yen JPY6 billion (US dollar USD67.7 million), scheduled to start manufacturing food seasonings in 2012.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A PAKISTAN university has been working with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) to spread veterinary skills amongst rural women, especially in the Punjab, where women traditionally care for livestock. The goal of the month-long training programme operated by Lahore’s University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences (UVAS) is to enable women to earn a living caring for village livestock, generating wealth and animal health simultaneously.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN garment exporters are losing to competition from China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, said a recent report released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Shipments to the European Union (EU) and the US account for nearly two thirds of the country’s textile and apparel exports, but registered a decline by value of 11% in 2009.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

IT has been a tough last few years for north African knitwear, clothing and textile manufacturers, but the signs are that the knitwear sub-sector is outperforming its woven textile partners. With the European Union (EU) the region’s primary export destination, the region’s manufacturers have been hit by the end of restrictive quotas on imports from China in 2008, and then by the impact of the global financial crisis when demand slumped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE TOWN of Asbestos in French-speaking Québec, Canada – named after the mineral that underpins its economy – is waiting to see whether its provincial government will approve a Canadian dollar CAD58 million (US dollar USD56 million) loan enabling an underground mine to tap an immense deposit.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

WITH an aim to moderate the domestic prices of cotton yarn, last week the Indian government said it would suspend a 7.5% duty concession for exporters – essentially raising the price of Indian cotton by 3.5% on world markets (because of a complex formula framing these tariffs).…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

INTRODUCTION

There are signs around the world that the textile market is beginning to recover from the global economic crisis, and developing markets will be leading that recovery. Asia is, of course, at the forefront, but many countries in Latin America have also weathered the crisis and have come out in a surprisingly decent position, with their dynamic textile and apparel industries well positioned for future expansion.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, KARRYN MILLER and KEITH NUTHALL

IRAN may be a democratic theocracy, but it certainly does not take the moral high ground when it comes to tobacco smuggling. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has in the past identified Iran as being one of only two countries in the world where more than half the cigarette market share comprises contraband.…

BY ERIC LYMAN and KEITH NUTHALL

THE EXECUTIVE secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Yvo de Boer will switch his attentions to the private sector after standing down from his job on July 1. He will be joining the consultancy group KPMG as global adviser on climate and sustainability and working with a number of universities.…

BY KARRYN MILLER

VIETNAM has worked hard to convince foreign companies they should look past neighbouring China for their knitwear needs. Through an increasing commitment to quality, along with strong government support, Vietnamese knitwear firms are starting to see the fruits of their labour and tags ‘made in Vietnam’ are becoming more common both domestically and abroad.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

A SWIFT rise in the price of south Asian cotton yarn has forced closures in Bangladesh’s US$6.43 billion knitwear export sector and pushed some manufacturers to the brink as the whole industry struggles to overcome the costing problem.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

PRESSURE will be eased on Pakistan’s hard-pressed oil and gas industries though a Euro 100 million loan from the European Investment Bank to part-finance renewable energy sector developments. The money will augment US$510 million pledged for Pakistan green energy by the Asian Development Bank.…

BY ANCA GURZU

INFRASTRUCTURE and technology costs are the two important factors when talking about promoting intermediate alternative fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), the Center for Automotive Research, a US-based non-profit organisation, has told wardsauto.…

By Leah Germain, International News Services

Globalisation has created new opportunities for the transfer of people and products across borders, and broadened the scope of many businesses around the world. But it’s not all good news of course: one of the seamier sides of growing international commerce is the abduction and trafficking of human beings. 

The problem is getting worse. Just over a year since the collapse of the global market, countries around the world have reported a significant increase in cases of the exploitation of people for monetary gain. While cases of kidnapping and ransom continue to be common in African and Latin American countries, such as Nigeria and Venezuela, the majority of organized human trafficking cases are actually in Europe.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

EGYPT

Eastern Tobacco Company

450 Al Ahram Street, Giza

Tel : +20-18-5724711- 5724332 – 5724945

+20-23-5793326

www.easternegypt.com

British American Tobacco Egypt

City Stars Complex

Star Capital – Tower 4A

Omar Ebn El Khattab Street

Postal Code 11771

Heliopolis, Cairo

T: (+20) 2 480 1080

Japan Tobacco International (Regional)

2nd Floor, Lophitis Business Centre

249, 28th October Street & Emiliou Hourmouziou Corner

CY-3035, Lemesos

P.O.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

AN INDIAN textile mills federation is demanding an immediate ban on cotton exports as weak production in the country is leading to a "grave situation" for industry supplies. The Southern India Mill Association says a delayed monsoon and heavy floods in many cotton growing areas may lead to a 10% lower output in the world’s second largest producer of cotton.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPOL’s Organised Crime Threat Assessments have not always contained a wealth of detailed useful information – but its 2009 report shows how crime groups are adopting innovative technology and organisational skills: international business should take note. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has confirmed that it has launched an anti-dumping investigation into alleged cut-priced exports to the European Union (EU) of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from Iran, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A spokesman for the Commission’s trade directorate general said officials started probing the problem last Thursday (Sept 3) – it could lead to punishing anti-dumping duties being imposed by the EU on these products.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’S tobacco industry, despite unfavourable circumstances such as the devaluation of its local currency the Pakistani Rupee (PKR), an unstable political situation, law and order problems, and the trade of counterfeit and smuggled brands of cigarettes, has fared well and grown at an average rate of 3% over the last five years.…

BY WILL ROBERTSON, MARK ROWE and KEITH NUTHALL

THE ROBUST nature of the southeast Asian palm oil industry has been illustrated by the way the market has remained strong despite both the global recession and the arrival of weather phenomenon El Nino this year and its attendant drought conditions.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CONTESTS between India and Pakistan to set the Guinness World Record for hand-planting trees in one day is leading to millions of trees being planted in a region where deforestation has been a serious problem.

The efforts are being noted by the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) ‘Billion Tree Campaign’ which has a target of planting 7 billion trees worldwide by this December.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THERE has been an increase in the proportion of counterfeit shoes seized in Europe made in China – up to 93.4% of all seizures in 2008 – the European Commission has revealed. This was up from 79.6% the previous year.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH and KEITH NUTHALL

IT is simple: when a country has political and civil turmoil, fighting a small civil war, hydrocarbon production will suffer. Indeed Pakistan’s oil and gas industry is not doing well, with oil and gas production already declining in 2008.…

BY MARK GODFREY

WITH the global recession raging across most of the world, Bangladesh’s knitwear sector is maintaining a strong commercial position and looks better geared to survive the economic downturn than some of its regional competitors. Orders have only dipped marginally say local knitwear producers.…

BY LEE ADENDORFF

IF there was a year when long-term textile and clothing market forecasters missed by a mile, 2008 was it. Forecasts made in 2007 were dominated by looming concerns about trade restrictions, investment in technology, a potential slow-down of production and a consolidation of business investment but no one predicted what devastating effects an unexpected recession would have on the textiles and apparel sector.…

BY MUNZA MUSHTAQ

As Sri Lanka’s military makes its final thrust against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the country’s government is trying hard to ensure the safety of its only international airport and its passengers, because of an enduring risk of attack from the separatist group.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, EMMA JACKSON and ALAN OSBORN

IN the early 1990s the nuclear power industry faced a bleak outlook. High profile accidents such as in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in, Pennsylvania, the USA, had raised public concern about the safety of the industry to all time high.…

BY MARK GODFREY

THE BUREAUCRATS and engineers who run China’s booming hydropower sector will be in listening mode in April when the world descends on Beijing for the second International Conference on Hydropower Technology & Equipment. The theme of this year’s government-sponsored gathering – ‘Sustainable China Hydropower Industry’ – reflects worries about the environmental impact of recent massive hydropower projects in China.…

BY WANG FANGQING

THE GLOBAL recession has forced China, whose economy relies largely on exports, to turn to boosting its domestic economy with a budget as huge as four trillion Chinese Yuan – RMB (US$ 585 billion) being unveiled last November by the central government.…

BY MARK GODFREY

BARRY Lee is probably typical of Chinese wine drinkers. The auto-sales accountant started off drinking a local Great Wall red at an office lunch, then got curious and went to a Beijing branch of the French Carrefour supermarket chain where he spent RMB78 (US$11.40) on a bottle of Chilean red.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; and KEITH NUTHALL

AN INTERNATIONAL conference took place this month in Hong Kong (May 11-15) and adopted a new International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention on globally applicable ship recycling regulations for international shipping, including oil and gas tankers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE MIDDLE East and North Africa region (that economists like to award the acronym ‘MENA’) consumes 6% of the global vegetable oil market and sucks in 15% of global imports, with strong growth across the board on the back of rising per capita GDP and a burgeoning population.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A SAUDI Arabia firm committed to developing energy projects in the Middle East, north Africa and south Asia is investing in a Pakistan 585-megawatt gas-fired combined cycle power project with the help of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BANGLADESH’S fledgling anti money laundering and counter terrorist financing regime faces an uphill struggle, with the country ranked as one of the most corrupt on earth and money laundering equivalent to 13% of the country’s GDP. Furthermore, Abul Barkat, Professor of Economics at Dhaka University told the Money Laundering Bulletin, an estimated US$7 billion flows into Bangladesh through illegal alternative remittance systems, and there is an ‘economy within an economy’ generating some US$300 million in profits every year for Islamist political parties linked to fundamentalist and terrorist activities.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BANGLADESH’S knitwear sector is undergoing unprecedented growth: averaging 24% per year over the past 12 years, and an astonishing 45% in the first three months of this fiscal year, with exports projected to reach US$10 billion by 2011.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

BANGLADESH’S US$100 million annual dye and associated chemicals market has reported double digit growth over the past three years on the back of the rapid expansion in the ready made garments and knitwear sectors.

"Bangladesh is a growing market for dyeing, especially since 2005 as more factories are opening," said Wohid Uddin Mahmud, managing partner in Technocrat Enterprise, agent for textile dyeing, washing and laundry machines for Italy’s Flainox, the US’s X-Rite and South Korea’s DaeLim Starlet.…

BY PHILIPPA JONES, DOMINIQUE PATTON and LUCY JONES

The growth in outsourcing within the clothing and textile sector worldwide has highlighted a key issue, and that is the relative merits of running an integrated company that handles basic production and design, or relying on a string of specialist suppliers to deliver the goods, from fibre supplies, to textile manufacture, design, clothing assembly and retail.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

A MAJOR strengthening of Canada’s regulations and programmes fighting money laundering and terrorist financing has taken place in 2008 and will continue into 2009, going a long way towards erasing the worryingly negative impression left by last year’s report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’s automobile industry, contributing 2.8 % to the country’s GDP by financial year (FY) 2006-7, has grown impressively this decade. But the sector’s growth may turn negative this year because of high inflation, especially rising steel prices, political uncertainty and overall economic recession in Pakistan and elsewhere.…

BY JAMES FLYNN

RUSSIAN organised crime has left its fingerprints across eastern and western Europe in recent years. But now the gangs have begun to turn their sights on the international shipping industry, manipulating documents that are fundamental to the movement of international cargo for their own – usually money laundering – ends.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 attacks on the US resulted in a raft of regulations to curb terrorist financing, but seven years on Al Qaeda is still at large, has adapted to the new regulatory environment to raise funds, and morphed into an international terrorist Hydra.…

BY PACIFICA GODDARD

CHINA’S entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2002 and the recent end of quotas in the US and European markets have created gigantic changes in the textile industry worldwide, with developing markets like those in Latin America expected to suffer the most from these shifts.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

ETHIOPIA COMMODITY EXCHANGE OPENS

ETHIOPIA has opened a commodity exchange, designed to bring order to the country’s often chaotic food markets. Their informality effectively forces farmers to sell locally to traders they know and trust. This prevents commodities moving from regions where there is abundance to those where there are shortages, intensifying the risk of famine and for prices to plummet in districts with a production glut.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi; SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore; and KEITH NOYAHR, in Colombo

THE SOUTH Asian knitwear industry is experienced mixed fortunes at present, with the impact of China’s production boom and the global liberalisation of the textile sector still changing sub-continental fortunes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A GLOBAL initiative is to be launched allowing developing countries to acquire nuclear power, without the concerns associated with proliferation and security that have followed the use of this technology in North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere. Kuwait has become the latest country to back a proposed multinational nuclear fuel bank under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) management, with the emirate offering US$10 million.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

SINCE the USA-led military intervention in 2001 helped overthrow the Taliban region in Afghanistan, the country has made important steps to curb money laundering and terrorist financing. In 2004, anti-money laundering (AML) and combating terrorist financing (CTF) legislation was enacted, and a Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) established.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus and Beirut, and HELENA FLUSFELDER, in Jerusalem

INTRODUCTION AND THE GULF

THE DENIM sector in the Middle East is as diverse as it is fragmented, with strong demand in the Gulf and Israel for major brand names and the latest trends, while in the less economically developed parts of the Levant international brands are of less importance than style.…

By Mark Godfrey in Beijing

No country has added nuclear power like energy-hungry China. Neighbouring North Korea had more nuclear power capacity than China in 2000 (as did Taiwan). But by 2010, according to the US government-affiliated Energy Information Administration, China will have bypassed both countries.…

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, in Lahore, Pakistan

REMARKS from the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei in a recent interview with the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper showing concerns about Pakistan’s civil and military nuclear assets and Islamabad’s capability to protect these from extremists- have unleashed a great debate in and outside the country.…

BY DOMINIQUE PATTON, in Beijing, RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi, and KEITH NUTHALL

TIME was when the Chinese clothing industry was all about exports. But the astonishing success of China’s export industry has inspired competitors, making life harder for its exporters.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round moves towards completion, a big push is underway to see a wine and spirits geographical indication register established within final deal. A WTO special group for the issue met yesterday (Mon Dec 3) and supporters of the register pushed for full negotiations on the issue, ending technical discussions that have dragged on for years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round moves towards completion, a big push is underway to see a wine and spirits geographical indication register established within final deal. A WTO special group for the issue met yesterday (Mon Dec 3) and supporters of the register pushed for full negotiations on the issue, ending technical discussions that have dragged on for years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Doha Development Round moves towards completion, a big push is underway to see a wine and spirits geographical indication register established within final deal. A WTO special group for the issue met yesterday (Mon Dec 3) and supporters of the register pushed for full negotiations on the issue, ending technical discussions that have dragged on for years.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

SURINAM’S Blue Wing airlines has been removed from the European Union’s (EU) blacklist of carriers banned from flying to the EU. The European Commission has also lifted flight restrictions imposed on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). "Blue Wing Airlines and PIA have successfully completed the implementation of a corrective action plan following their inclusion in the list.…

BY MARK GODFREY, in Beijing

CHINESE coatings made the headlines for all the wrong reasons this summer. Faulty paint jobs on Chinese exports has however put into sharp relief the quality gap between local and foreign players in China’s paint and coating sector, which has been enjoying unprecedented growth.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore

PAKISTAN’S Sialkot International Airport – a rare example of partnership in the country – could be operational in October. A 223-member board of directors from the private sector, who are also financiers of the project, will run the managerial affairs of the Punjab province airport, with the country’s Civil Aviation Authority providing technical support only.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore

WITH a long established food manufacturing sector and strong commodity production, the Pakistan food industry, one of the largest industries in the country, has grown with an average pace of 10% over the last three years.…

SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore

THE PAKISTANI biscuit and confectionery sector has been faring well, with 12-15% growth last year, but there are storm clouds on the horizons because of skyrocketing prices of sugar and flour. In recent years, these ingredient problems have been overshadowed by massive domestic demand, fed by more than 255 biscuit and wafer manufacturing units (42 mechanised) with an installed capacity of 47,000 metric tonnes for biscuits and 5,200 metric tonnes for wafers.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

WITH demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) surging across the globe, the Persian Gulf is at the epicentre of LNG developments due to its vast gas resources. But the rapid expansion of the sector is not without complications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A BOOM in counterfeit clothing accessories being smuggled into the European Union (EU) has overshadowed a fall in the trade in fake sportswear, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 30 million items of clothing and accessory fakes last year, up 175%.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut
WITH demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) surging across the globe, the Persian Gulf is at the epicentre of LNG developments due to its vast gas resources. But the rapid expansion of the sector is not without complications.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BOOM in counterfeit clothing accessories being smuggled into the European Union (EU) has overshadowed a fall in the trade in fake sportswear, according to the latest figures from the European Commission. It says EU customs officials seized 30 million items of clothing and accessory fakes last year, up 175%.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore, Pakistan
FACED with a shrinking habitat, commercial pressures are threatening that most elusive of big cats, Pakistan’s snow leopards. Their hides are coveted in the Middle East; their bones, nails and other parts are used in traditional Chinese medicines.…

BY DEIRDRE MASON
FIFTY years ago, the signing of the Euratom Treaty ushered in a system of European non-proliferation controls designed to prevent nuclear-associated technology being exploited for the illicit production of nuclear weaponry. And today, after the anniversary of the three agreements signed on March 25, 1957 that gave the European Communities – later the European Union (EU) – their legal basis, that ‘dual-use technology’ system continues to be refined.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut
HUNTING with falcons has been part of Arab culture for thousands of years, but with wild falcons declining because of trapping and Middle Eastern hunters also shooting falcons for sport, what do Arabs think about imposing tougher restrictions?…

BY ANDREW SALMON, in Seoul
LAST October, South Korea was admitted as an observer to the world’s premier group of money laundering fighters – the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and given the nation’s recent moves to strengthen its anti-money laundering regime its path to full membership in approximately two years appears smooth.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union (EU) anti-fraud agency OLAF has helped uncover three rules-of-origin frauds costing EU coffers millions of Euros. In one case, an OLAF-German police inquiry has uncovered the loss of Euro 50 million in duties by the illicit rerouting of Chinese energy-saving lamps via Vietnam, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and Tunisia to evade 66.1% anti-dumping duties on China-made lamps; Euro 7 million of avoided taxation has been recovered.…

SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH, in Lahore

PAKISTAN’S paint sector – one of its largest industries – has shown an impressive growth over the last few years, mainly because of boost in housing and construction activities.

Unfortunately, being one of the more unorganised sectors in the country, with many small manufacturers, it is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of paint producing units, production and sales data, but figures available from government agencies reveal the industry achieved 25-30 % growth in last five years, with an impressive spurt of 15-20% growth in the financial year ended June 2006, which could be sustained in the medium-term if the housing sector continues growing at its current pace.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

"REFINERY Process Outsourcing" or simply RPO is an exciting buzzword in the otherwise hard-pressed Indian petroleum industry, as the term represents newly found and highly profitable venture of operating refineries to fulfil surging international demand.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE

The Iranian tobacco market has been partly opened up to international players in the past five years and growth is expected to rise strongly, but development of the sector is beset by extraordinarily high rates of smuggling and governmental regulations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank will pump US$52 million into Pakistan’s Dewan Petroleum Ltd, boosting its local upstream oil and gas exploration, development and production. Dewan has interests in the Safed Koh block, the Punjab, including the Salsabil gas/condensate field.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE REIMPOSITION of quota limits last year on some Chinese textile products has driven official overseas sales down, according to European Commission figures. During the first quarter of 2006, China saw an overall decrease in exports to the EU of minus 12% in volume, although unit prices increased by 9%.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi, India

*The Gas-reserves and Gas-production figures in the first table are from BP Statistical Review. Only in case of India’s daily gas production we have chosen a more widely quoted figure from Government of India, which is 15% more than BP’s.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

STRONG demand for leather luggage in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is lining the pockets of tanners in Italy, Pakistan and Thailand.

According to a recent global online survey by marketing data company AC Nielsen, the UAE ranks among the top five countries worldwide for luxury branded luggage bags.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A US$25 million financing package has been signed by the International Finance Corporation, of the World Bank, with Canada-based Rally Energy, supporting upstream oil and gas projects in Egypt and Pakistan. In Egypt, Rally is helping develop the Ras Issaran heavy oil concession, the Gulf of Suez; in Pakistan, the Safed Koh gas block, in the Punjab.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg, South Africa and DAVID HAWORTH, in Taiwan

TRADITIONAL health care systems do not always get a good press, being accused of incorporating superstition and poor medical practice. To some western public health advocates, they are akin to bringing back the leach.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

ONGOING recruitment of South African nurses to the UK is pushing South Africa’s already hard pressed public health system close to the brink of collapse and putting patient care at risk, the country’s lead nursing union and health experts have warned.…

BY DAVID EIMER, in Beijing

"Build nuclear power, enrich the people", proclaim the billboards at China’s Qinshan nuclear facility in the south-eastern province of Zhejiang. Qinshan, a 120 kilometres south of Shanghai, is the centre of China’s nuclear sector and home to five of the country’s nine operational reactors.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE INVENTOR of a new ergonomic carpet loom reducing Pakistan weavers’ work injuries, making them less likely to force their children to work, has been honoured internationally. Saeed Awan, Pakistan’s Centre for the Improvement of Working Conditions and Environment director won the Tech Museum Prize, of the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California for socially beneficial technological advances.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

INDIA’S opening-up as a free market economy, along with the adoption of new technology, reformed laws, and the presence of vigilant media are curbing many commercial crimes in the world’s largest democracy, but criminals still find ways to make a dishonest Rupee.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ONLY comparatively recently have the world’s anti money laundering agencies come to grips with alternative remittance systems (ARS) and even today the scale of the systems and the degree of infiltration by criminals is still not fully known.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA, in New Delhi

INDIA’S opening-up as a free market economy, along with the adoption of new technology, reformed laws, and the presence of vigilant media are curbing many commercial crimes in the world’s largest democracy, but criminals still find ways to make a dishonest Rupee.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT is not often that participants in international negotiations admit that they have failed, but such an admission has come from diplomats involved in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on creating a register for wine and spirit geographical designations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has warned “bottlenecks in Indian and Pakistan airspace” are being caused by “route and level restrictions and limitations within the Kabul FIR”, in Afghanistan. The problem has caused traffic intended for the Kabul-controlled area to be diverted via Iran.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FERROUS and non-ferrous metal companies paid together millions of dollars in kickbacks to the toppled Saddam Hussein regime, the Independent Inquiry Committee into the UN Iraq Oil for Food programme scandal has claimed. More than 150 suppliers of ferrous metal products ranging from carbon steel plates, steel coil, steel joists, galvanised steel cores, steel bars, steel pipes, fabricated steel and others are named in the report, as are around 50 suppliers of aluminium, copper and lead.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DETAILS of restrictions imposed on exports to European buyers of leather raw materials have been highlighted in the detailed European Union (EU) market report. It identifies India, China, the US, Pakistan and Russia as “very important markets” for the supply of leather raw materials, whilst Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa, Malaysia and Brazil are labelled as “important suppliers (mainly by tanners)”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE STEEP decline in sales of European Union (EU) finished leather to its number one market, the United States, has been highlighted by a comprehensive report on the global leather (and textile) market written for the European Commission.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
INSURERS should have a much clearer idea of the risks involved in extending cover to the areas hit by the tsunami at the end of last year following agreement by 23 Indian Ocean nations to share data and set up seven regional warning centres.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
FIGHTING money laundering is about getting your hands dirty. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) may pronounce global standards that it would like jurisdictions to follow, but all governments need help, and often regional bodies are better placed to do the detailed work than more remote global organisations.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has released a detailed guide for European Union (EU) businesses wanting to profit in Pakistan, giving special attention to the textile and clothing sector’s technology needs, including for dying. It stressed that demand for environmental technology will be created by new national rules insisting on the better treatment of wastewater, with the manual noting “soda ash and various chemical dying products are the main effluents needing treatment”.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PAKISTANI government has launched formal disputes proceedings at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over claims that Egypt is breaking global commerce rules by imposing anti-dumping duties on Pakistan match exports. Egypt introduced the tariffs because it says cut-priced Pakistani matches are unfairly eating into the domestic market share of Egyptian match producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A GROUP of cotton exporting countries are resisting a move by the United States to dilute the mandate of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) cotton sub-committee, formed to find agreement on this sensitive issue during the WTO Doha Development Round.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE THREE Asian countries with polio are on target to eradicate the disease this year, their health authorities claim. Last year, polio cases in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan were slashed by 45%.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A BAN on imports into the European Union (EU) on poultry meat or poultry from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, China, Vietnam, Pakistan and Malaysia has been extended until this September, because of concerns that bird flu is still present in these countries.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

ONLY comparatively recently have the world’s anti money laundering agencies come to grips with alternative remittance systems (ARS) and even today the scale of the systems and the degree of infiltration by criminals is still not fully known.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PAKISTAN’S knitwear industry could receive substantial American cash injections under a US-Pakistan investment treaty now under negotiation between its government and the US Trade Representative office (USTR). American interest in Pakistani knitted goods is high, with knit apparel, yarn and fabric dominating (along with some other textile products) dominating the US$2.5 billion’s goods imported from Pakistan in 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE PAKISTANI textile industry could receive substantial American cash injections under a US-Pakistan investment treaty that is now under negotiation. American interest in Pakistani textiles is high, with knit apparel, miscellaneous textile products, cotton, yarn and fabric, woven apparel, and carpets dominating the US$2.5 billion goods imported from Pakistan in 2003.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUSPENSION of chicken product imports into the European Union (EU) of chicken products and birds from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam will remain until March 31, 2005. The extension, (from December), of the bird flu ban was confirmed by the EU’s Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT could be the most underestimated commercial crime in the world, the illegal trade in wildlife and their products. Some estimates put its value at US$5 billion-a-year, but governments do not really seem to care. Keith Nuthall reports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE SUSPENSION of chicken product imports into the European Union (EU) of chicken products and birds from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam will remain until March 31, 2005. The extension, (from December), of the bird flu ban was confirmed by the EU’s Standing Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FINLAND banned the sale of imported Pakistan-made working Soft Granberg brand gloves (sizes 7, 9, 10 and 11) because it discovered banned carcinogenic azo colorants in green textiles used as materials (along with untainted leather), reported the European Commission rapid alert service Rapex.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EU import bans of poultry products from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam have been extended to December 15 by the European Commission over continuing bird flu concerns.…

KEITH NUTHALL
PAKISTAN polyethylene terephthalate (PET) manufacturers have escaped from paying punishing anti-dumping duties on exports to the European Union (EU), while Brussels wants to levy such tariffs on similar products from China and Australia. The European Commission has asked the EU Council of Ministers to release provisional duties collected from Pakistani manufacturers, while retaining those taken from Chinese and Australian producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
PAKISTAN polyethylene terephthalate (PET) manufacturers have escaped from punishing anti-dumping duties on exports to the European Union (EU), while Brussels wants to levy tariffs on similar products from China and Australia. The European Commission has asked the EU Council of Ministers to release provisional duties collected from Pakistani manufacturers, while retaining those taken from Chinese and Australian producers.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IMPORT bans into the European Union (EU) of poultry products (and poultry) from Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, South Korea and Vietnam have been extended to December 15 by the European Commission. The existing restrictions were to expire on August 15, but Brussels is still concerned about bird flu in these countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FEEDING of rare and exotic marine species off deep ocean mineral deposits that may become a target for mining companies could create a conflict between international mineral extraction and environmental conventions, a United Nations report has warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FEEDING of rare and exotic marine species off deep ocean mineral deposits that may become a target for metal mining companies could create a conflict between international mineral extraction and environmental conventions, a United Nations report has warned.…

Keith Nuthall
AS the European Union (EU) prepares to abolish its remaining restrictive import quotas for textile and clothing products, the latest European Commission statistics confirm that China is best placed to exploit this liberalisation. For 2003, China exported more textile products to the expanded EU, with 10.7% of imports.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AN ATTACK has been made on the United States, European Union (EU), and other textile importing jurisdictions for waiting until the last minute to abolish most restrictive quotas under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Textile and Clothing.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
NOBODY likes to be on a blacklist, especially one written by the American government. But every year, the US state department issues a comprehensive rogues gallery of countries involved in the narcotics trade and related criminal problems. One surprising entrant: the United States.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WHEN the European Union (EU) signed up to an Agreement on Textiles and Clothing at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) last Uruguay Round that foresaw the scrapping of import quotas at the start of 2005, it is hard to imagine it viewing the deal as a way to boost production in knitted products.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved levying 13.1 per cent definitive anti-dumping duties on Pakistani exports of cotton-type bed linen, pure or mixed with man-made fibres or flax.…

Keith Nuthall
EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have been asked to approve 13.1 per cent definitive anti-dumping duties on Pakistani exports of cotton-type bed linen. No provisional duties had been imposed, because on site inspections were halted after investigating European Commission officials received death threats.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL AND MARK ROWE
THE SPREAD of the bird flu virus is still not under control, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned, pointing to new outbreaks amongst poultry in Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Laos. The FAO said that more than 80 million chickens have so far been culled, excluding those in China: (Indonesia 15 million; Thailand 30 million; Vietnam 30 million; and Pakistan, 4 million).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL and MARK ROWE
THE STANDING Committee for the Food Chain and Animal Health of the European Union (EU) has extended until August 15 the suspension of EU imports of fresh chicken meat and chicken products from Thailand because of the bird flu outbreak.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
BRITAIN wants the European Commission to reconsider plans to scrap exemptions from EU duties for ‘super’ and ‘pusa’ basmati rice from Euro 250/tonne duties payable on other varieties. “Super” commands 80 per cent of Pakistan’s EU basmati rice imports.…

BY MARK ROWE
UZBEKISTAN has been at the forefront of international AML efforts in the central Asia region, a spokesman for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) told the Money Laundering Bulletin. Uzbekistan has the most advanced AML legislation and apparatus of all the former Soviet Central Asia and has signed more than 20 bilateral and multilateral agreements on cooperation in fighting illicit drug trafficking with its Central Asian neighbours, as well as with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, according to the International Money Laundering Information Network (IMOLIN), (whose contributing members include the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the United Nations and the World Customs Organisation).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SHIPBREAKING, a ready source of scrap steel, is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. What is more, agreed a recent meeting of experts from the International Metalworkers Federation, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and others, it need not be so deadly.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE ‘LOOTING of civilisation’ in Baghdad, with its vivid images of wanton destruction and looting inflicted upon the Iraqi national museum, was all too familiar for those who have followed events in Afghanistan. But everyone must hope the parallels stop there, for the experience of those quietly seeking to recover Afghanistan’s glorious archaeological past does not bode well for the long-term restoration of Iraq’s treasures.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
AS with many projects inspired by the start of the next 997 years and the last three, the framing of the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals was an ambitious enterprise.

Imposing statistically measurable targets for international organisations and national governments in making improvements in global poverty, education, gender equality, health, the environment and education, they have proved tough to attain.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE
INDIA, Thailand, Pakistan, New Zealand, Australia and nine other countries in south and south-east Asia are to better control foot-and-mouth disease, by strengthening links between national laboratories. Notably, a new regional reference laboratory in Thailand will be established, sending out affordable test kits to countries that cannot usually afford them.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is predicting the extinction of the virulent cattle disease rinderpest by a UN deadline of 2010. It is trying to eradicate the last traces of the virus in northeast Kenya and southern Somalia.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE INTERNATIONAL Finance Corporation of the World Bank is to invest US$35 million in Pakistan’s Dewan Salman Fibre Ltd, the largest producer of polyester staple fibre in the country. The money – a senior loan of US$30 million, a convertible loan of US$4 million, and a US$1million participation in a convertible preferred stock issue – will help the company expand its polyester staple fibre capacity by adding a specialty fibre line of 20,000 tonnes per annum, refinancing debt, and funding its need for permanent working capital.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
IT might seem a long way from South Hams District Council’s public tendering process to world trade negotiations in Geneva, but thanks to the globalisation process that upsets so many protesters with metal rods stuck through their noses, the two are actually closely related.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is toasting a victory over India at the World Trade Organisation in the long-running bed-linen anti-dumping duties case; a disputes panel rejected India’s claims that the EU had failed to implement an order made last year by another panel that it should reform its protection against Indian linen.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to abandon special testing of fish from China, because it no longer considers there is a serious risk of these exports being significantly contaminated with restricted anti-biotics. It has taken the same decision for shrimp shipments from Vietnam and Pakistan.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union is to abandon special testing of certain fish products from China, and shrimp from Vietnam and Pakistan because it no longer considers there is a serious risk of exports being contaminated with banned antibiotics. However, checks are being introduced for Ukrainean milk powder and Brazilian poultry.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Bank’s International Finance Corporation will provide US$30 million to help LASMO Oil Pakistan Ltd, a subsidiary of Lasmo plc, (acquired by Italy’s ENI SpA in 2001), to develop Pakistan’s Bhit natural gas field, 150 km north of Karachi, at a cost of US$283 million.…

BY MARK ROWE
THE LOCATION of Afghanistan’s national museum in a southern Kabul suburb must have been idyllic when it opened in 1931, set against a pastoral backdrop of farmland and mountains. The museum was once one of the richest cultural repositories in the world, home to a collection of the most elegant antiquities from the Ashokan, Greek, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Muslim periods.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has suspended anti-dumping duties on imports of cotton-type bed linen from Egypt, ahead of the February 28 date when they were due to lapse, signalling it is unlikely to press for their renewal.…

BY MARK ROWE
SHIPPING live prawns in a hibernated state to Europe is being promoted in Thailand as a means of combating increased export competition from regional neighbours. Thai exporters are being encouraged to explore the possibility of shipping live tiger prawns to Europe by keeping the cargo in hibernation.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has struck a trade deal with Pakistan that will reward its support for the west in the war in Afghanistan by scrapping EU import tariffs on Pakistani clothing exports and increasing import quotas by 15 per cent.…

Keith Nuthall
THE UNITED States has been told it should scrap or amend safeguard restrictions on the amount of combed cotton yarn that can be imported from Pakistan, by the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organisation’s disputes settlement procedures.

Washington had contested an earlier judgement that it had broken WTO rules in the way that it imposed the trade barrier, but key elements of its case were rejected by the appeals body.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is planning new trade measures to help Pakistani exports, specifically targeting clothing and textiles, which account for three-quarters of the country’s sales to the EU. In a move linked to helping Pakistan deal with the current war on its Afghan neighbour, the plan is to remove all tariffs on clothing and to increase quotas for Pakistani textiles and clothing by 15 per cent.…

Keith Nuthall
A DEAL has been stuck at the World Trade Organisation’s goods council, which will extend the time that eight developing countries can erect trade barriers to restrict the import of components for automobile manufacturing, to promote local engineering companies.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has decided to suspend the collection of anti-dumping duties on imports of cotton-type bed linen from India following a determination by the World Trade Organisation that the EU had failed to take all relevant factors into account when it originally imposed the levies in 1997.…

Keith Nuthall
A DISPUTES panel of the World Trade Organisation has recommended that the USA repeal safeguard duties that it has imposed on imports of Pakistani combed cotton yarn. The decision follows hearings sparked by the failure of the US to abide by a WTO Textile Monitoring Body recommendation that they should be scrapped.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EU’s Scientific Steering Committee has advised that it is “likely” that BSE is present in cattle herds in Albania, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, that it is “unlikely” to be present in India, Pakistan, Colombia and Mauritius, and “highly unlikely” to be in the cattle of Brazil and Singapore.…