Italy sets conditions for backing Pakistan trade aid

Italy’s support for special trade favours to Pakistan conditional on regional rivals being denied similar concessions.

BRUSSELS: Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned on Friday that Italy’s support for special trade favours to Pakistan is conditional on regional rivals being denied similar concessions.

Frattini said that “under certain circumstances”, Italy could allow a deal to pass EU hurdles. “My country believes that it can be done,” he said, adding that, “of course it depends on the list of products and on the guarantee that any kind of offer will not be extended to any other country in the region except Pakistan.”

Italy is the country in the European Union (EU) that is holding up a British proposal to open up access to the world’s biggest trading bloc for Pakistani textile exports but there are fears in Rome that up to 40,000 jobs could be lost amongst the EU’s main textile producers.

Italian textile manufacturers have suggested that tens of thousands of European jobs could be at risk in the continent.

The European Commission has offered to lift nearly all tariffs on 75 separate product lines but the deal requires the approval of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Italy is concerned about Indian demands for equal treatment.

The unilateral suspension of EU duties, available for the next three years, is intended to be applied as of January 1 next year.

An EU official admitted on Friday that “getting this through the WTO is already going to be a challenge.”

The Pakistan floods affected 21 million people—with 12 million in need of emergency help under UN estimates.

European leaders last month said “the severity of this crisis demands an immediate and substantial response, taking also into account the strategic importance of Pakistan’s development, security and stability in the region.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2010.