The General Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has unanimously approved the trade package for Pakistan, which authorises the European Union (EU) to provide trade concessions to Islamabad on 75 products. It is coincidental that the Pakistan-specific package has been finally cleared by the WTO when Indian Minister for Commerce, Anand Sharma, is in Pakistan, who had initially refused to support the package.
An official statement said that in its meeting on February 14, 2012, the General Council of the WTO unanimously approved the draft decision, according to which the EU is now authorised to provide trade concessions to Pakistan on 75 products. Twenty products of the package are subject to Tariff Rate Quotas (TRQs) and will be eligible for import into EU duty free up to a specified quantitative limit. The TRQs were worked out by taking average of Pakistan's exports into EU during 2008, 2009 and 2010 plus 20 percent.
The products included for market access on the basis of TRQs include ethyl alcohol, some types of cotton yarn and cotton woven fabrics, trousers, stockings, ladies garments, toilet linen and kitchen linen and footwear. Besides, many types of woven fabrics, gloves, T-shirts, track suits, curtains, floor cloths, made-up articles of textile material etc would be importable from Pakistan without any quota and free of duty by the EU.
The process will now move from Geneva to Brussels where the European Parliament and Council will jointly consider the terms of the WTO waiver and give final approval to the enabling EU Regulation as per the co-decision procedure which will incorporate rules of origin and other usual conditions applicable to GSP imports by the EU.
As per this WTO decision, the waiver will be effective for two years, from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013. Therefore, by implication, import duties paid after January 1, 2012 would be refundable, unless the final EU Regulation specifies otherwise. This package would provide extra market access to Pakistan in 27 countries of the EU. Estimated additional market access is likely to exceed $500 million per annum. It would help to revive a large number of factories which are not producing to their optimum capacity at present.
An official told Business Recorder that Pakistan's ambassador to WTO, Shahid Bashir, who was recently criticised by former Minister for Textile Industry during a meeting of National Assembly's Standing Committee on Commerce for his negligible role in procuring the EU package for Pakistan, finds the criticism unjustified.
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