Pakistan’s carpet industry gets boost after bottoming out
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China and Pakistan have included handmade carpets in their free trade agreements to promote exports from Pakistan’s carpet industry, which employs thousands of women.
Said Riaz Ahmed, Vice Chairman of Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association Geographic TV The carpet industry “has bottomed out due to many trade-related challenges.”
In 2015, due to rising freight rates, tariffs, customs clearance and storage costs, the export value of Pakistani handmade carpets dropped from US$300 million to US$68 million.
As a result, thousands of women engaged in daily work lost their jobs.
According to Ahmed, 70% of the labor force in the hand-woven carpet industry is female.
But now, as hand-knotted carpets are included in the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, 313 export items will enter China’s $2 trillion import market without duty.
“Pakistan is a huge handmade carpet manufacturing market in the region,” Ahmed said. “Its cheap labor costs are very attractive to Chinese investors.”
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