The Senate Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research unanimously recommended immediate imposition of regulatory duty on cotton imports through the land route, after being informed by Cotton Commissioner Khalid Abdullah that the decline in last year’s cotton crop resulted due to low commodity prices and APTMA pressurizing to allow duty free import of one million cotton bales from India through the Wagha border which could jeopardize the local cotton crop.

The country’s overall cotton acreage has declined by 12.7 percent but in Punjab the acreage was 14 percent short of the target. Also the APTMA imports through land routes caused a loss of Rs 22 billion to the Pakistani farmers last year.

Senator Mohsin Leghari said that as the Indian government is providing Rs 612 billion per annum subsidy on fertilizer to its growers; provide free electricity for tube wells and that freight subsidy is also available for exports. Indian cotton was cheaper than the Pakistani cotton.

Minister for National Food Security Sikandar Hayat Bosan said that the APTMA has managed to shift the subject of cotton to the Ministry of Textile, which is not capable of handling the issues of agriculture and growers. He said that the APTMA was importing cotton from India claiming that it was extra-long staple. However that kind of cotton is not grown by India and only the US and African countries grow that kind of cotton.

Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) and ginners have around 364,000 bales of fine cotton in stock with them but the APTMA was reluctant to buy from them. Senator Saud Aziz said that if the cotton stocks with local mills were included they would have close to a million bales in the country.

There is no justification to allow imports from India as it will jeopardise the Pakistani farmers.

The committee recommended banning cotton imports from India. However, Senator Saud Aziz said that it was not possible under the WTO rules but that it could be restricted through regulatory duty.