Pakistan formally allows PPE exports

ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday formally allowed exports of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and some companies had already applied for international certification from EU and US FDA to easily export their products to these markets and expect to earn around one billion dollars by end this calendar year.

“This is a new line of export opened for Pakistan. We can export $500 million to one billion in the first year and it will increase with the passage of time and world demand is also increasing rapidly,” an official said. He said that Pakistan’s textile industry would get benefit of it through exporting these products.

After this permission, Pakistan can capture various markets and its in time decision, otherwise neighboring countries like India and Bangladesh were capturing the global markets, an official said.

A notification of the Ministry of Commerce issued here said that all other PPEs exports has been allowed from now, however there will still ban on export of Tyvek suits, surgical masks and N-95 masks. “Notification allowing export of PPEs & hand sanitizers has been issued. The government has done its part. Exporters please take note & go full speed ahead to capture a good share of world market. This doesn’t apply to Tyvek suits, N95 masks & surgical masks,” Advisor to PM on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said in a tweet.

Pakistan’s first private-sector Synthetic Products’ manufacturing company has received the European Union’s (EU) “CE” mark certification for its face shield allowing the company to exports these products to EU. The shields specifically designed to protect doctors and paramedics treating the coronavirus patients across the country.

A copy of the company’s certificates available with The News reads as “SPEL the manufacturer has been assessed and found to comply with the EU PPE regulations for CE marking cat -1 and also meet application clauses for physical parameters,” says a press release issued here today.

Since 1985, any product sold in the EU must bear the CE mark certification. CE is an acronym for Conformité Européenne, which means, “Conforms to European legislation.” In other words, the product meets the requirements of EU directives or EU regulations, which qualifies the product for sale throughout the European Union.

Features of light weight washable with soap and water full face protection shield includes comfortable to wear, non-resistant to breathing and first level of defense against splashes and mist. It constitutes part of PPE.

It is made of transparent PET sheet using indigenous technologies with local resources. The people at large can also use to protect them self against coronavirus. The “SPEL Company” can comfortably meet local requirements and can sell to international markets comfortably after export permission.

When The News contacted the chairman of the SPEL Company Almas Hyder, he appreciated the decision saying that yes we have received the CE mark certification from EU and the company had also applied for certification to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US and hopefully we would get it in a few days.

He said that after the coronavirus entered Pakistan, our engineers designed the face shield. So far we have donated around 10,000 face shields to government of Punjab which are being used in hospitals, including Shaukat Khanum Hospital. He said that as this product came to the market and it went viral on social media, we got hundreds of queries from locals and also from EU and US.

He said that there are also others companies manufacturing good quality of face shields and other PPEs. He said that till February 2020, we were importing the PPEs, but now our industry and entrepreneurs has developed so much capacity that it not only can meet local demand but also export to EU, US and other regions. These PPEs are not only for corona treatment as safety, but it is also for industrial use too.