ISLAMABAD: European Union (EU) Ambassador to Pakistan Raimundas Karoblis Wednesday said Pakistan needed to “do more” in terms of fulfilling its commitments under Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) ahead of a review.
The status was granted by EU in 2014, which led to 108 percent hike in Pakistani textile exports to EU due to concessional tariffs. In October 2023, European Parliament unanimously voted to extend GSP+ status for another four years until 2027 for developing countries, including Pakistan, to enjoy duty-free or minimum duty on European exports.
The upcoming GSP+ monitoring mission was delayed from June because of Iran-Israel conflict, and will scrutinise Pakistan’s record on 27 international conventions tied to the trade scheme, which grants duty-free access to most Pakistani exports.
In an interview to a private TV channel, EU ambassador was asked about whether Pakistan needed to do more to fulfil requirements of the scheme. He said, “Yes, we are saying that. We are saying that it should be, well, needs to be, to do more”.
The ambassador said it would be a periodic monitoring mission that would assess implementation of all necessary United Nations conventions for the scheme’s application.
“There are human rights, labour rights, environmental issues as well and good governance. Quite a lot of meetings will be with state institutions, but also with civil society organisations, with human rights defenders, but also with companies and actually with people who are working in the companies”, Karoblis said.
Outlining areas of concern, Karoblis pointed to human rights, death penalty, blasphemy, forced disappearances, minority rights, women’s rights, child labour and forced labour.
The envoy also said there was a need to discuss the issue of recent military trials of civilians. “Maybe during discussions we will have some justifications. So, well, of course, the security situation is problematic. There are a lot of challenges which we really see”.
