ISLAMABAD: As the financial sanctions imposed following the Russian- Ukraine war have started affecting the global economy, Pakistan’s exports are also going to face the impact.
In a letter to the Ministry of Commerce, Pakistan’s fruit and vegetable exporters have informed that their exports and payments from importers in Russia and Ukraine have stuck-up after the outbreak of war.
“The exporters of our sector who export Kinnow & Potato to Russia & Ukraine have been severely hit by this conflict,” said the exporters in the letter on Wednesday.
“The payments from Russia have been stuck up due to sanctions on Russia and now the exporters are facing liquidity problems. If the war further prolongs, this issue of payment would be further deepened and hence there is a dire need to put some sort of “Financial Mechanism” its place to resolve this serious issue,” the letter which addressed Adbul Razaq Dawood Advisor to Prime Minister on Economy, trade and investment said.
Apart from the payment issue, the horticulture exporters claim that the export proceeds is required to be remitted to Pakistan against E-forms within a time frame of 120 days, however under the prevailing war conditions, it is more likely that the exporters may be unable to meet this time frame as the E-Forms which are now “overdue” would lead to various other problems.
“It is therefore requested that the time frame of these E-Forms may kindly be extended keeping the specific conditions due to war in view between Russia & Ukraine,” it added.
According to Waheed Ahmed head of Pakistan Fruit and Vegetables Exporters, Importers and Merchant Association the war brings misery for everyone and the exporters are no exception to this phenomenon & they pay a huge price by sustaining huge financial losses. Timely intervention of the ministry of commerce could save the exporters from huge losses.
“We strongly anticipate that the issue would be resolved on priority basis to extend relief to the “worried exporters” so that they can focus on the primary objective of exports’ enhancement,” he added.
It may be added here that in the span of just a few days of the Russia-Ukraine war, the global economic outlook has darkened as unexpectedly potent financial sanctions rocked Russia’s economy and threatened to further fuel worldwide inflation.
The price of oil, natural gas and other staples have started rising. At the same time, the groaning weight on supply chains, still laboring from the pandemic, rose as the United States, Europe and their allies tightened the screws on Russia’s financial transactions and froze hundreds of billions of dollars of the central bank’s assets that are held abroad.
