'EU trade package has become a laughing stock'

The Chairman of Pakistan Denim Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PDMEA), Shahid Soorty, said that the European Commission earned lot of goodwill by announcing a special concession package last October to support Pakistan's economy in the wake of devastation caused by the unprecedented floods, but it has been more than 7 months now and still there is no progress. The EU trade package for Pakistan has become a kind of laughing stock.
After the flood disaster, Pakistan asked for complete GSP+ scheme on the same pattern as awarded to Sri Lanka and Haiti after their tsunami and earthquake disasters, the Chairman of PDMEA informed. The EU in turn proposed to suspend tariffs on 75 items instead of more than 300 items of GSP+ constituting just 27 percent of Pakistan's current imports to the EU and expecting to generate another 100 million euro per year over a period of 3 years. In order to avoid any dispute by any of WTO members it was agreed to take WTO waiver from all member countries to avoid any dispute arising later.
"This has failed miserably in spite of the package being cut further and further by countries opposing like India, Bangladesh, etc. Later on the top 8 items out of the 75 restricted to quota and based on 8 digits H.S. Code system for performance and the effect of this package is going to minimise further down to like 10%-20% of its original approved package", Soorty said.
These restricted items are top performing items where Pakistan has chances to increase performance including ladies' jeans, some top knit items, etc. It has been noted that generally 8 digit code is not followed by the European buyers and Pakistani suppliers mostly shipping under 4-digit H.S. Code or even a wrong H.S. Code and this is not reflecting true picture of Pakistan's export to EU, he informed. It has been further learned that EU is considering to restrict further even more items out of 75 beside 8 top items to please the WTO members to get their approval.-PR