LONDON – The European Parliament has expressed satisfaction on the progressachieved by Pakistan in enacting new laws and developing new institutionsfor implementation of 27 core conventions of GSP+ specially the NationalAction Plan for Human Rights.
The parliament hoped that Pakistan would continue to engage with the EU toensure to bridge implementation gaps during the next two years of reportingon GSP+.
In this regard, the International Trade Committee (INTA) has discuss the2nd Biennial Assessment Report of GSP+ and also agreed to deliberate uponpossibility of up-scaling relationship with Pakistan from a beneficiary ofGSP+ Scheme to an FTA partner in future.
The process of monitoring of compliance of GSP+ for next biennialassessment report for 2018-2019 would start in March 2018 by the EuropeanCommission.
According to Ministry of Commerce, Secretary Commerce Mohammad Younus Dagharepresented Pakistan INTA meeting in Brussels and made presentation to theEuropean Council on Pakistan’s case for retaining GSP+ and on-goingdeliberations by the EU Parliament and to undertake necessary engagementswith policy makers in European Parliament, European External Action Serviceand European Commission.
INTA noted the positive economic impact of the GSP+ scheme on thebeneficiary countries and it has been useful in encouraging countries toundertake necessary steps for promoting principles of good governance andsustainable development.
European Commission and the European External Action Service had prepared aJoint Staff Document evaluating steps taken by the beneficiary countries tocomply with UN Conventions pertaining to human rights, labour rights,narcotics control and corruption.
The section pertaining to Pakistan appreciated legislative andinstitutional measures undertaken to improve the Human rights regime inPakistan. It specifically appreciated establishment of National HumanRights Commission and National Action Plan for Human Rights among othermeasures.
During the session it was announced that GSP+ monitoring missions shallundertake visits to Pakistan, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and Bolivia in secondhalf of 2018 to interact with stakeholders engaged in implementation ofmandatory conventions for GSP+.
Pakistan is one of the 10 beneficiaries of EU’s GSP+ Scheme. As a result ofduty free access available to Pakistan in 28 member states Pakistan’sexports to the EU have increased from 4.54 billion Euros in 2013 to 6.29billion Euros in 2016 which implies an increase of 38%.
This duty free access has been crucial for Pakistani products to maintaintheir competitiveness in the EU market vis-à-vis similar productsoriginating from India, Turkey, Vietnam and China.