The country's exports to the European Union may be increased by more than $1.5 billion at the end of 2014 because of Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus status, it is learnt. According to recently released data by the European Commission, exports to the EU increased by $333.18 million during January-April, 2014.
The EU has given the GSP Plus facilities to three new countries including Pakistan from January 1, 2014 and will end on December 31, 2016. Exports to the EU increased by 17 percent in the first five months of 2014. During the period under review, exports of clothing and textiles and home textile sector of Pakistan increased by 7 percent.
The sector-wise break-up of exports revealed that textile remained the major beneficiary of the GSP Plus arrangement. Pakistan's exports of textiles to the EU increased from $1.44 billion during January-April 2013 to $1.74 billion during the same period in 2014.
According to official sources, under Pakistan China Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Pakistan-China volume of trade, which stood at $4.1 billion in the region in the year 2006-07, reached all-time high in 2012-13, amounting to $9.2 billion, showing an increase of 124 percent. Trade volume due to agreement between the two countries stood at $13 billion in 2013, while it is expected to reach $15 billion by 2015. China had been contributing significantly to Pakistan's imports even before the FTA was signed and has seen considerable improvement in its ranking after the FTA was implemented in 2007. By 2012, it was 15 percent of Pakistan's overall imports from the world as compared to 9.8 percent in 2006.
Comments
Comments are closed.