LAHORE - The $341.6 million worth of Pak textile export to Turkey has put on stake, as Turkish government has increased custom duty by 28 percent on the import of raw textile from Pakistan, The Nation learnt on Friday. At a time when the decision regarding the EU market access concession for the Pakistani products has been deferred till March/April the Turkish government action of increasing custom duty to facilitate its local fabric manufacturers will add to woes of Pakistan textile exports, sources said. They were of the view that Pakistan currently exports $341.6 million worth of textile to Turkey out of which $237.7 million is cotton cloth and $33.6 million yarn. There were chances that the finished fabric exports to Turkey could increase substantially after the change in country of origin rules in GSP Plus, but this decision would harm the export enormously, textile manufacturers said. Textile exporters pointed out that market access is the main issue impeding Pakistans textile export. They elaborating that spinners produce excess cotton yarn than local demand worth $2 billion a year that has to be exported. They said the weaving sector of the country cannot use this yarn to produce fabric as the local demand is limited while exports are not possible due to lack of market access. They said from the yarn weavers produce grey fabric worth $2 billion that has to be exported because there is no demand for this fabric. They said value-added apparel sector is subjected to 23 per cent import duties in these markets compared with zero rated access to the 80 privileged economies. They said the importance of market access could be judged by the fact that the textile exports of Bangladesh were $5 billion in 2005 compared with Pakistans textile exports of $10 billion. In the last fiscal the textile exports from Bangladesh increased to above $15 billion while Pakistans exports inched up to $10.6 billion only, they added. Federal Advisor on Textile Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig said that Pakistan is the major exporter of grey and denim fabric to Turkey as a raw material for their value-added products and the increase in custom duty would seriously affect their exports from Pakistan. He said the custom duty has also been increased by 30 percent on the import of textile items from China. He said that it would also affect the exports of millions of meter orders which are already under production with the Pakistani Mills for shipment to Turkey. The Textile Advisor said that he had spoken to Dr Yousuf Junaid, Consul General of Pakistan in Istanbul, Turkey and discussed this important matter. According to him, he advised the Consul General to take up the matter with the concerned authorities, besides arranging a meeting with them for further procedure. The Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Gohar Ejaz said APTMA is working on a strategy to increase market access through some opportunities available to Pakistan. He said Turkey has got free market access to the European Union and Pakistan has same access in China. Salman Abduhoo He added that Pakistan and Turkey could benefit from this by entering into strategic alliance with Pakistan supplying textile intermediary products to Turkey for onward exports to EU and its entrepreneurs establishing joint ventures in Pakistan for value-added exports to China.