KARACHI: Two south Asian countries

India and Bangladesh are close rivals of Pakistan, being major exporters of textile goods to the EU. They do not want Pakistan to gain market access in the EU, even on the basis of catastrophic floods or on humanitarian grounds.

The trade concession was offered to Pakistan by the EU in October last year to stable the economy of Pakistan, which was worst effected by torrential rains and devastating floods in August.

This is not the first and unique concession to Pakistan.

The same sort of concessions were already provided by the EU to Haiti and Indonesia in the face of vast destruction from tsunami and earthquake suffered by those two countries.

However, Pakistani officials are hopeful and optimistic about a positive outcome in the WTO from this package by the end of March 2011.