Pakistan’s mills fear a small tariff gap can flip orders in the US—especially if Bangladesh can ship some lines at zero duty.
Pakistan’s textile lobby is pressing Islamabad to reopen the US market-access conversation, arguing that recent tariff outcomes for India and Bangladesh are sharpening competition in America—Pakistan’s most important destination for apparel and textiles.
In a letter to Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, APTMA asked the government to seek duty-free access for Pakistani textile and apparel products made from US-origin cotton, mirroring the structure Bangladesh has secured.
APTMA says India has negotiated an effective 18% US tariff, while Pakistan faces around 19%—and Bangladesh now has a mechanism under which certain garments and made-ups using US cotton or man-made fibre can enter at zero reciprocal tariff (with details still to be specified).
This is less about a one-point headline rate than buyer behaviour. In commodity categories—basic knits, bottoms, made-ups—US retailers are extremely sensitive to marginal landed-cost changes. A credible path to zero duty for Bangladesh, plus its lower operating costs, can become immediate leverage against Pakistani suppliers.
APTMA is proposing a transactional bargain: more US cotton imports in exchange for tariff relief—a “mutual benefit” frame meant to be politically saleable in Washington and commercially useful in Faisalabad. Without preferential access, it warns, Pakistan’s largest export sector risks losing share just as domestic conditions (energy, financing, taxes) remain tight.
