Responding to approaches made by the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), the Commerce Ministry said earlier this week it would be seeking ‘substantial reductions’  if not the complete abolition of the relevant tariffs with the US, China, Korea, Belgium and Japan.  Currently, Belgium imposes a 20% duty on finished leather from the country, Korea 10%, Japan 6.9%, China 27% and the US 2.47%. Other importing nations benefit from lower tariffs because of various trade agreements, the ministry said.

The announcement co-incided with the release of figures from the Federal Bureau of Statistics which showed the country’s leather industry exports, both in terms of finished leather and leathergoods, were down 4.74% year-on-year during the quarter July-October 2003, to $243 million.  Finished leather exports totalled $66 million (-16.9%) while leather manufacturing was static at $149.2 million.  Footwear exports however were up 10.7% to $27.6 million. The figures for October were finished leather $12.9 million (a 26.6% drop on October 2002), leathergoods $34.3 (-19.8% ) and footwear $7.9 million (+16.2%).

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