LAHORE: Ambassador of European Union to Pakistan, Jean Francois Cautain, said on Tuesday that public and private sectors of Pakistan would have to work together to take full advantage of Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus status granted till 2023.
He was talking to the LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa, Vice President Muhammad Nasir and Executive Committee Members here at Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI). Mian Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Nazir and Ali Hassam Asghar were also present.
The Ambassador said the GSP Plus has given better market access to the products made in Pakistan to whole of Europe and the EU would like to enhance its trade with Pakistan. "It is very much now in the hands of the business community, both here in Pakistan and the European Union to utilize this facility available for boosting trade between the two sides," he added.
GSP Plus status monitored and reviews after every two years and Pakistan is still eligible for this, he said, asserting that Pakistan should avail full advantage of GSP Plus status and increase its traditional and non-traditional exports to the EU member states.
While, LCCI President Abdul Basit said that Pakistan and European Union have a strong bond in the areas of trade and investment and EU is very important trading region for Pakistan.
Despite this fact that EU Commission granted GSP plus status to Pakistan, he said, the potential benefits of this scheme could not be materialized.
Abdul Basit said that EU accounted for 12.8 percent of Pakistan's total trade in 2015 while absorbing 23.7 percent of Pakistan's total exports while, more than 80 percent of our exports to EU consist of textiles and clothing. Pakistan's imports from EU are mainly comprised of machinery, transport equipment and chemicals.
"It is a steady feature of Pakistan's trade with European Union that almost 72 percent of total exports to EU are with five countries namely UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Italy.
We look forward to finding more and more opportunities of market penetration in other countries like Greece, Slovenia and Ireland etc., where Pakistan's export averaged to dollar 50 million," he said and stressed the need for exploiting the potential by exporting agro-based processed foods to EU in collaboration with European companies through joint ventures and transfer of technology.
He said that natural or cultured pearl, precious and semi precious stones can be cut, polished and ornamented according to the need of European markets. Liaison of private sector with European Union Embassy is very important to ensure desired results.
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