Pakistani purveyors of a lightweight cotton, which has become a national craze in its home country, are looking to a historic opening of the Indian market for a big boost in sales.
The decision announced by the Indian government on Wednesday to lift a longstanding ban on Pakistani businesses setting up shop in India has been hailed as a breakthrough in efforts to boost anemic levels of trade between the neighboring countries.
One newspaper even said the decision to allow Pakistani business people to invest in India had the potential to “drastically reshape the Pakistani economy,” which for decades has been blocked from a vast potential market of like-minded consumers in India by simmering political tensions.
However, of all the products that are expected to start flowing eastwards across the border it is a Pakistani specialty known as “lawn” that could be the first through the gates. For decades the traditional cotton cloth has been bought by women who have used it to make elegant outfits that are particularly well-suited to the steamy South Asian summer.
In recent years the country’s fashion designers have revamped the staid designs produced by textile mills, creating a hugely popular branded product.
Advertising hoardings in cities are now plastered with giant images of Pakistan’s top models showing off the latest lawn collections. Shops boasting the most desirable designers have been overwhelmed by feisty, and sometimes violent, female buyers on the first day new lawn goes on sale.
Indian consumers showed a similar enthusiasm for Pakistani design at a trade show in Delhi earlier in the year where many of the lawn retailers were mobbed by crowds.
Pakistan’s only beer manufacturer has already announced a tie-up plan that will see its brew made under license in India. However, Gul Ahmed Textile Mills chairman Bashir Ali Muhammad — one of the country’s largest producers of lawn — said India would have to make even more concessions if cross-border trade is to really pick up.
“This decision is a very good sign from the Indian side but they really have to lower duties on imports, not just for Pakistan but for the whole world,” he said. “India for a long time has been too nationalistic about protecting its market.”
The two sides are currently negotiating a new trade regime and what items should be on a “negative list” of goods that will not be tradeable across the border. India has already ruled that Pakistani businesses will not be allowed to invest in defense, space and atomic energy companies.
After years of tensions and three wars, the amount of trade between the enormous South Asian countries is negligible. There is a consensus among Pakistan’s mainstream political parties in favor of normalizing trade relations with India, both to boost the country’s failing economy and in the hope that stronger business ties may lead to progress towards peace.
However, huge disagreements remain, including the status of Kashmir, the Muslim-majority mountainous state that Pakistan claims for itself.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese