Govt starts lobbying for extension in GSP Plus scheme

A plenary session of EU will take up Pakistan’s case in May and hold debate on a report prepared for the purpose

ISLAMABAD:

The government has asked Pakistan’s missions in European Union states to kick off lobbying for winning an extension in the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus scheme from the EU Parliament after its clearance by human rights and foreign affairs committees of the bloc.

Talking to media on Thursday, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir said the GSP Plus scheme, which provided tariff relief and duty concession on export of certain goods, had sailed through all pre-parliament hurdles and now it would be debated in the EU Parliament for approval for the next term.

It has already been given the go-ahead by the international trade, human rights and foreign affairs committees.

“We have tasked our embassies to start lobbying for approval by the EU Parliament of the extension in the scheme, which will be debated in coming months,” said Dastgir.



A plenary session of the EU will take up Pakistan’s case in May or June and hold debate on a report prepared for the purpose. Pakistan will also give its point of view and preparation in this regard has already been done.

According to Dastgir, the EU Parliament’s committee on international trade has endorsed the recently compiled report of an assessment committee of the bloc and it acknowledged that the moratorium on death sentence was not obligatory under the 27 United Nations conventions attached to the GSP Plus facility.

In January 2014, the EU had granted Pakistan the GSP Plus status offering duty-free access to European markets for two years. Now, the facility will be extended for the next term on the basis of progress and achievements over the past two years.

Many EU states have voiced concern over the human rights situation in Pakistan, particularly the lifting of moratorium on carrying out death sentences.

The minister said the EU assessment committee had prepared and published a balanced report about Pakistan’s progress on the GSP Plus status, which would help extend the scheme for the next term.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Brussels Naghmana Hashmi and Trade Minister Umer Hameed also visited Pakistan recently, participated in a meeting of the treaty implementation cell and reviewed progress of provinces on human rights.

Dastgir expressed the hope that the EU Parliament after discussing the assessment report would give approval for the extension. “I hope that the scheme will not be blocked because of the satisfactory progress and endorsement of the report by the committees concerned.”

He pointed out that the international trade committee had acknowledged that the restriction on carrying out the death penalty was not part of the strings attached to the GSP Plus scheme as Pakistan was in a difficult situation while fighting against terrorism and extremism.

He argued that Pakistan had forcefully presented its case before the EU nations, saying the country was engaged in an intense war against terrorism and extremism and under such a situation it had to continue to implement the death penalty.

In this regard, a delegation comprising female parliamentarians also played an effective role while taking up the issue with the EU parliamentarians during their recent visit.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2016.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.