Abstract:
The textile industry is the backbone of Pakistan ' s
economy with a status of the largest industry and with
comparative advantage of resource utilization . Trade in
textiles and clothing has remained highly distorted . For
more than thirty years , tills sector was governed by
special regimes : the Short Term Cotton Arrangement in 1961 ,
the Long Term Cotton Arrangement from 1962 to 1973, and the
Multi Fibre Arrangement (MFA) from 197 4 to 1994 . The MFA
was a deviation from the general preferences of General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) . The Agreement on
Textiles and Clothing was formulated in such a way that
developed countries could essentially postpone the
elimination of restrictions until 2005 since half of the
products are to be liberalised only on the last day of the
Agreement . Home textile products are an important valueadded
category of Pakistan ' s textile exports . It is obvious
from the foregoing data that Home textile products exports
from Pakistan have made steady progress since 1994-95 and
have arisen from about 6 . 5% to about 18% of the total
textile exports in 2002-2003 . The Home textile products
exports crossed the US$ 1 . 0 billion mark for the first time
in the history of Pakistan in 2002-2003 . Credit for this
commendable performance goes to all Home textile products
exporters . It is most unfortunate that the European
Commission (EC) has again imposed 13 . 10% anti- dumping duty
on Pakistani Home textile products at a critical juncture
when quota free regime (WTO) is commencing with effect from
01/01/2005 . Home textile exports have a large share in total
textile export and market of home textiles are targeting to
Europe and America . In these regions exporter exports on
the quota basis and home textile exports affected due to
quota elimination in these sectors after WTO' s
implementation.
This study is basically a descriptive study that is
undertaken to get the perception of the home textile
industry rega rding the WTO and how the i ndustry will face
it as a combination of opportunities or threats and both
opportunities and threats with same ratio . The ultimate
goal ; of the study is to find out that the basic factors or
variables which can influence the home textile exports .
Researcher selected 100 different units randomly located in
different areas such as Karachi ,
respondent of this study were
Faisalabad and Lahore . The
the executives and the
questionnaire is based upon the very important to
important ranking scale and Yes or No Quest i ons.
methodology that is gain to be used for analys i s is
a) Weighted Mean b) Percentage.
least
The
The conclusion drawn from the study is that the WTO will
create both opportunities and threats . It will depend upon
companies that how they made strategy to face the threats .
It has been found that all respondents perceive the same
degree of importance to factors (quality , Price , Quota ,
Tariff and non tariff barriers and government policies) in
respect to their importance in post WTO regime . Pakistan
has never realized its full quota in European , American and
Australian markets . In fact quota realization by Pakistan
has been around 70 per cent only.