Pakistan hopeful to win WTO support for EU trade package
January 23, 2011
KARACHI: Despite facing strong opposition from South Asian countries to get the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) approval for availing European Union (EU) offered trade concessions, Pakistani authorities remain optimistic about benefiting from this lifeline by the end of March.
This view was shared by speakers on Saturday at a seminar on ‘EU Trade Concessions to Pakistan’, organised by the Institute of Business Management (IoBM).
“Pakistan will start making concessional imports to the 27-nations bloc maximum by the end of March this year,” said Tariq Iqbal Puri, Chief Executive Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), while talking to The News on the sidelines of the seminar.
Earlier, Pakistan was supposed to make concessional exports of pre-identified 75 items to EU countries from January 1, 2011. But it was delayed on strong objections raised by regional competitors including India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at WTO on the grant of this special facility to Pakistan.
The EU offered trade concessions to Pakistan in October last year to support the economy, which suffered heavily due to floods in August.
“The EU has already offered such concessions to other countries including Haiti and Indonesia when they were struck by flood and tsunami respectively,” said the Federal Advisor on Textile, Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig.
Secretary Commerce, Zafar Mahmood said: “EU has offered a concession of up to 20 percent in its import duties on some 75 Pakistani items for a period of three years.”
The EU has given most favoured nation status to all of its trading partners; however few countries have secured Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and GSP Plus status because of poor economic conditions.
Pakistan is striving hard to get GSP status and a review for GSP Plus is likely in 2014,” he added.
“The next meeting of WTO is scheduled for January 31,” Mahmood said, adding that Pakistan was hopeful to get EU trade package cleared this time and a lot of lobbying has been done for this purpose.
“During my visit to Sri Lanka, I was assured by the authorities that they will not create hurdles for Pakistan anymore.”
Earlier, the Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, visited Bangladesh in a bid to gain support for the package.
Majority of articles on the 75-item list are raw materials like cotton, yarn, yarn fabric and grey fabric which draw sever criticism from the textile manufacturers.
Many industrialists said the export of raw material would ruin the value-added textile industry as the EU has not included items such as bed linen and home textiles.
Mahmood and Puri were of the opinion that the EU package was a must for Pakistan to secure GSP Plus status from the EU in 2014.
This view was shared by speakers on Saturday at a seminar on ‘EU Trade Concessions to Pakistan’, organised by the Institute of Business Management (IoBM).
“Pakistan will start making concessional imports to the 27-nations bloc maximum by the end of March this year,” said Tariq Iqbal Puri, Chief Executive Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), while talking to The News on the sidelines of the seminar.
Earlier, Pakistan was supposed to make concessional exports of pre-identified 75 items to EU countries from January 1, 2011. But it was delayed on strong objections raised by regional competitors including India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at WTO on the grant of this special facility to Pakistan.
The EU offered trade concessions to Pakistan in October last year to support the economy, which suffered heavily due to floods in August.
“The EU has already offered such concessions to other countries including Haiti and Indonesia when they were struck by flood and tsunami respectively,” said the Federal Advisor on Textile, Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig.
Secretary Commerce, Zafar Mahmood said: “EU has offered a concession of up to 20 percent in its import duties on some 75 Pakistani items for a period of three years.”
The EU has given most favoured nation status to all of its trading partners; however few countries have secured Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and GSP Plus status because of poor economic conditions.
Pakistan is striving hard to get GSP status and a review for GSP Plus is likely in 2014,” he added.
“The next meeting of WTO is scheduled for January 31,” Mahmood said, adding that Pakistan was hopeful to get EU trade package cleared this time and a lot of lobbying has been done for this purpose.
“During my visit to Sri Lanka, I was assured by the authorities that they will not create hurdles for Pakistan anymore.”
Earlier, the Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, visited Bangladesh in a bid to gain support for the package.
Majority of articles on the 75-item list are raw materials like cotton, yarn, yarn fabric and grey fabric which draw sever criticism from the textile manufacturers.
Many industrialists said the export of raw material would ruin the value-added textile industry as the EU has not included items such as bed linen and home textiles.
Mahmood and Puri were of the opinion that the EU package was a must for Pakistan to secure GSP Plus status from the EU in 2014.
