Islamabad—Textile exporters are likely to make deals with USA and West Africa to import cotton to meet their requirements, it is learnt. Sources in textile industry told that if Indian government does not allow cotton export to Pakistan, deal would be made with other countries for importing cotton. These deals would certainly be costlier, but there is no way out, they added.

They said that the country’s textile sector exporters might fail to fulfil their export orders in the coming weeks owing to restrictions imposed by the Indian government on its cotton exports to Pakistan, which would lead to loss of millions of dollars to the national kitty.

“The Indian government seems reluctant to lift ban on its cotton export to Pakistan, as requested by Islamabad. That will seriously affect the textile exports”, an official of the government told. Pakistan had requested India to allow its cotton export for which the deals had been made before imposition of restriction.

“We are suffering a lot due to the India’s refusal to allow cotton exports to Pakistan and may fail to fulfil the exports targets made with other countries”, a textile exporter said. However, he held the government responsible for failure in negotiating with India, as according to him, the government should have allowed onions exports to New Delhi when they could allow cotton exports to Islamabad.

He said that textile industry is already in hot water due to the on-going power crisis in the country, and Indian’s delay in allowing export to Pakistan would add fuel to the fire.