The Pakistan government has said it expects the country’s leather exports for the full year July 2002 to June 2003 to be down 12% on the year before, to $762 million, citing the Iraq war.  Of the total, leather garments exports are expected to be 27% down, to $235 million.

The revised figures were decided upon at a meeting between the Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PLEMGA) led by Mr. Fawad Ijaz Khan and Tariq Ikram, Chairman, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Saturday (March 29).  The target for 2003-2004 has been set at $635 million, $15 million less than what had previously been expected.

To counter the decline, Fawad Ijaz Khan suggested that both the government and PLGMEA membership should prepare now for the opening of the Polish, Japanese and Russian markets.  Though these countries currently had high import tariffs, the pending accession of Poland to the EU coupled with the forthcoming reduction in Russian import tariffs made exploring their potential in greater detail worthwhile, the chairman said.

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