Shabbir Hussain Chawla President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) has welcomed the decision of the International Trade Committee of European Union to continue the facility of GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) Plus for Pakistan for next two years. In a statement issued here Friday, he said that Pakistan was badly hit during war against terror. "Its economy was shattered and realizing the role of Pakistan in war against terror, the EU had granted the status of GSP Plus to Pakistan, which helped it to stabilize its economy," he added.
"This status was tagged with 27 international conventions, agreements and protocols, which increased the overall cost of production in Pakistan", he told. However, despite of this additional burden, the Pakistani exports are increasing to the EU member countries; he told and added that an overall increase from 5.54 billion to 6.28 Billon Euro was recorded only due to this facility.
He said that in 2014 Pakistani export recorded 23% increase after which our exports started declining due to various domestic reasons. He said that the difference between imports and exports widened and in this scenario the continuity of GSP Plus was imperative to bridge this widened gap. He expresses satisfaction that government has taken positive measures during this financial year and our export jumped from $21.54 billion to $24.18 billion during first seven months of this facial.
He said that government should now review its export policy to filly harvest the benefits of GSP Plus by dolling out maximum incentives to the textile exporters. Continuing, President FCCI said that Pakistan failed to fully exploit the facility of GSP Plus as our maximum exports to EU countries are restricted to the textile sector. He said that government should review its existing policies to get maximum benefits from GSP Plus which is also available in many other sectors of the economy.
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