Pakistan

Indian opposition scuttles EU trade deal

WTO panel rules against concessions being offered to Pakistan by Europe.

Shahbaz Rana March 22, 2011

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan appears to have lost a five-year fight to gain preferential access to European markets after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled on Monday that the European Union's (EU) tariff concessions offer to Islamabad violated international trade agreements.

The WTO's committee on customs valuation of the Council for Trade in Goods, known as the CGT, on Monday took up the matter of the EU giving Pakistan a limited 3-year tariff concession on 75 items. The committee did not approve the concessions after the EU disclosed that the con sultation process with countries that oppose the trade deal for Pakistan was incomplete.

Despite stiff opposition from India, the EU is still hopeful that a solution can be found in time for the WTO General Council meeting.

“It is, of course, disappointing that some members of the WTO still oppose the trade concessions for Pakistan,“ said Lars-Gunner Wigemark, the head of the EU delegation to Pakistan. “Consultations are ongoing with all countries concerned, in particular India, and we are hopeful that the systemic and economic issues involved can be addressed in a satisfactory manner.“

The EU had offered those concessions to Pakistan in the aftermath of the 2010 floods, which devastated large parts of the country. Under the global trade rules, the package had to be endorsed by the WTO. The rules bound the CGT to make a decision on the matter within 90 days. The committee convened three meetings within the stipulated time.

The EU did not formally put the deal forward for a vote, as its rejection would have closed the doors on the deal permanently.
The matter has now been referred to the WTO's General Council that will tentatively meet on May 3, ten months after the July 2010 floods. For the last six years, Pakistan has been striving for tariff-free access to European markets, but its efforts had been rebuffed by the EU.
Islamabad's chances for succeeding in securing a deal with the EU increases after the 2010 floods, which created a sympathetic atmosphere in Brussels.

In September 2010, the European Council approved tariff concessions on 75 items.
The total worth of the items exported under these tariff lines is $1.03 billion and the average tariff on these items is 8.86 per cent. Under the EU proposal, the tariff would be reduced to zero for a period of three years.

If the WTO approves the package, and it also gets endorsed by the European Parliament, it will increase Pakistan's exports to the EU by $350 million over three years.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2011.

COMMENTS (44)

Omer Khalid | 13 years ago | Reply This might be a setback but not necessarily bad. WTO is an international organization with Pakistan as its signatory, and its members have the right to protest/challenge deals which they perceive breaking international rules. Any ways, its not clear how this deal would have affected the flood victims but of course it would have benefited the business class of Pakistan which is already very rich. Now asking for concessions using natural disaster as an excuse is a not good idea in the long term. Rather then asking for aid and concessions, Pakistani business needs to learn to compete by innovating and developing quality products. Then EU will buy our products. Secondly, textile exporters have too much influence on the government and in various chambers of commerces; we need to move towards more service oriented economy where most of the value lies in product-chain.

Raja | 13 years ago | Reply @khan I was saying the same thing. Since Indias popupation is large Percentage poor in India out of total world population is less impressive. English or Math classes wouldn't help pakis like you. Brain transplant might:-)

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Abdul | 13 years ago | Reply Don't cry pakistans,it is just a trade deal... Why should we do a favor for u...??? We have given u Aid of $25 million at the time of ur floods... We want fair trade,we wont allow such concessions

Raj | 13 years ago | Reply Why do pakistan need concessions? After all they are mighty and stong nuclear power, who love to brag about it! they always like to point out that india has more poor people than pakistan, however they can not add very well, hence the state of their economy!!! their exports are limited to mengos and cheap textiles!!! nothing of any significance, except terrorism, if it can be classed as trade!! surely europe has enough problems on that front already from local pak origin population, demanding all sorts of crazy things, in foreign countries.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @Jam: KIndly tell what "Typical Indian attitude" means? And by corollary what does "typical Pakistani attitude" mean? Jargons won't get you anywhere. Only hardwork and fair play will.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @Bangash: Before pointing fingures, look at Pakistan's policy towards India 1. No MFN status.Why? India gave MFN status to Pak years ago 2. Look at trade with Afganistan. Afganistan can send their goods to India via Pakistan, but Pakistan will not allow Indian goods to Afganistan via Pak. why? You can't be fair even on trade issues, let alone other issues. Even in that issue you want all the benefits at cost of other nations. BTW what have you to say about other nations like Bangladesh,Vietnam, Srilanka and Thailand who also oppose the deal? Is there any issue like Kashmir with them too?

LOL | 13 years ago | Reply @ Andrea - clearly that's not your real name. LOL is not my name but at least it's obvious. It's a hilarious attempt to seem "non-Pakistani". Keep dreaming. India is a force for good in Afghanistan. I wonder most why most Afghanis love India while they hate Pakistan. All Pakistan has done is made their country more violent and less stable. You might also want to look up what the definition of terrorism is.

anil | 13 years ago | Reply @vasan,@Bilal Khan.... 1)Before Accusing India,Please ask your gov the same question.I think you are not so naive.Pak doesn't allow Indian export to central asia citing security problem,but allows Indian imports.This is an idea of sick and desperate mentality.How do you expect mercy from us at this point. 2)About poverty,whole world knows that India is a poor country.Then India should get trade consessions,not Pak.Right??Advise your artists and other eligible personalities not to come to India to seek oppotunity as we are poor and we can't afford u. @Bilal...Pls don't give us links of the sites to read.we stay here and we know our difficulties and also advise you not to advise GOI.Instead advise ur GOP.OK??

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply Andrea: "And yes the world owes Pakistan big time for defeating the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War and making the world a safer place. " You must be really joking. Pakistan was paid as a mercinery by US and your master Saudi for all the handiwork of raising jihadis and spawning them on Afganistan and Russia. Pakistan didnt do any work out of charity,. They lacked the foresight to realise that it is their own society which was getting poisoned by the indoctrination that went on in Zia's era paid for by the stupid CIA and Saudi. If the accounts are not settled by the US and Saudi please claim it from them. After all Saudis have oil wells and US is not shy of printing notes. For your information Cold war era was not as bad as the current situation due to terrorism related events of which Pakistan played and will probably play a vital part. There were no gun toting security in all walks of life in every country intruding into the personal lives as well. Is the world a safer place now. I dont agree. You must living within a cocoon. One major question is how are all these issues connected to this article. Somehow our Pakistani brothers and sisters pull other issues in which in turn raises the rating of Tribune.

khan | 13 years ago | Reply @ Raja.. he said 25% of worlds hungry poor not 25% of world population.. if india does indeed have 17% of world population and it is safe to assume that the worlds population is around 6 billion.. 17% of 6 billion is a little over a 1 billion.. 25% of 1 billion is 250 million ofcourse and india has more then 250 million hungry and poor.. i think you need to take some basic math and english classes :)

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @Bilal Khan: 1. Should there be no level playing field in commerce? Why should Pakistan get competitive advantage vis-a-vis other countries? Pakistan has been asking for concessions for last 5 years. If countries start having bias, the world trade would not commence. 2. Regarding Indo US nuclear deal, India has to get the nuclear reactors at commercial rates, not at concessional rates. If Pakistan would have not been party to profilration, it would have also got similar deal. Anyway China is doing the same for you. The point is commerce should be fair. How would you reactl if a vegetable vendor sells the vegetables at different rates to twoyou and other customer and you are the one paying the higher price. Its same for countries too

cosmo | 13 years ago | Reply @Bilal Khan: Your analysis is mind blowing. But I got just one question to you... If India is suffering from so many problems with so many poor people, Why the hell should India be giving concession to Pakistan? hmm...keep thinking.

Majeed | 13 years ago | Reply @sandy: Including the Hindi wordings for your easy read. Could not find the Urdu script, so transliterating it. Har ek baat pey kahtey ho tum kee tu kyaa hai Tumheen kaho key yey andaaz e guftagu kyaa hai? At everything that I say, you say, “Who art thou”? Tell me what kind of talk is this? -Mirza Ghalib. === Your arguments require you to state the premises, not your prejudices. Kindly spare us the use of the term 'Pakis'. It is a thousand fold more hurtful when directed at us from our Indian neighbours, than from those continents away. Take care and thank you. Enjoy the link to the song by Jagjit Singh. It should convey the appropriate emotions.

John | 13 years ago | Reply PAK can resolve its issues with IND. IND is a bigger market for PAK than EU. Logistically, it opens up the PAK export market to every small farmers and small business owner, with increased profit. EU market is crowded. PAK agricultural exports have a preferred status with US, and PAK mangoes are expected this fall.

Andrea | 13 years ago | Reply @arshad: Maybe the Indians need to reign in their own terrorism industry which has oppressed millions of Kashmiris for the past 60 years. As for using Afghanistan as a base for terrorism, this has been exposed but you Indians conveniently ignore this. And yes the world owes Pakistan big time for defeating the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War and making the world a safer place. By virtue of being a front line state, Pakistan was destabilized by international fighters and weapons. It takes time to undue all of this which is why the EU wants to help Pakistani commercial goods. Instead of understanding this, Indians are just up to their anti Pakistan games. I hope all Pakistanis see the true nature of the cunning Indian mindset.

LOL | 13 years ago | Reply @ Bilal - As Al already said, why would India want to approve beggar thy neighbor policies that would hurt its poor? That's just stupidity. Pakistan needs to stop being a beggar nation. India isn't asking for anyone's help. Can't Pakistan want the same for once?

Harish | 13 years ago | Reply @Bilal Khan: It is true that 1/3rd of India is still poor. But it is less than 2/3rd which was two decades ago. Considering the enormous size of the issue, I think it is progress. Indians did not create this poverty. It is the legacy of 150 years of colonial depravation and it will not disappear overnight. However, substantial progress has been made in the last two decades. India now has one of the largest anti-poverty program in the world - NREGA at $50 billion per year. That combined with right to free basic education and skill development ($35 billion per year) and food security program ($37 billion per year) is one of the largest poor empowerment program in the world. By 2020, expect that poverty figure to reduce substantially.

arshad | 13 years ago | Reply @Iftikhar-ur-Rehman: Vice- a - Versa

arshad | 13 years ago | Reply @Jam: All the best. We Indians will be happy if pakistan really make progress, and come out of terrorism industry. which is affecting all yours neighbour.

Raj | 13 years ago | Reply I have to agree that India have a long way to go. We need to minimize poverty and create equal opportunities for all our citizens and ensure that the fruits of economic development is well distributed in coming years. No sane Indian will deny that. But coming to the context of this article, we can always debate whether a country qualifies for concessions based on circumstances and may have different opinion. Finally it's the responsibility of concerned bodies and it's elected members to analyze and decide on the matter. Participating countries will pass their opinion based on their business strategies and aspirations. But do you believe it is just that the author has mentioned only India's name whereas there are other countries as well who have objected the same in order to protect their part. Don't you think such efforts are for cheap publicity and add more hatred between the two countries which in this case may not be applicable. Don't you think that the author should have given a more holistic picture and let his readers judge rather than already singling out a particular country. Do you believe Bangladesh, Vietnam and other countries objected because they loathe Pakistan? If not then what prompts Pakistanis to believe that India objected to heckle Pakistan but not to protect his business. If you want to criticize India's wrongdoings, no problem with that. But atleast come up with facts and logical statements rather than the preconceived rhetoric.

Fact Check | 13 years ago | Reply @Bilal Khan: You are citing a 2005 WB estimate to make your points. Do you even understand 6 year old report doesnt' reflect 9% Yearly economic growth. That's all I am going to say about it so you can figure out on your own.

Salim Ansari | 13 years ago | Reply Is it so necessary for Muslims and Pakistanis to play the victim hood card all the time ? Pakistan did not get trade concessions because the Indians and other parties presented better and more logical points on why Pakistan should not be singled out for a preferential deal. As far as "AMAN KI ASHA" is concerned, there is absolutely no support for it. It is only a talk show. Indians I have interacted with - remark that until yesterday Pakistanis swore by the two nation theory and suddenly they have woken up to "shared heritage and values" - and so are quite skeptical about Pakistan's intentions. They are keen to keep people-to-people contact to the absolute minimum necessary. They are paranoid about jihadists entering India - after all saying that Mumbai was the work of "non-state actors" does not speak too well about the writ of the Pakistani state. To them it is quite evident that all Pakistan wants to do is latch on to India's growing prosperity.

sharma | 13 years ago | Reply Its Give and take policy!! Pakistan will have to negotiate something big with india. 1.Allow india to trade to central asia!! we dont have problem with European union exempting your core industry although it will affect our industry a little but it can be well compensated if you allow us to trade with central asia,afganistan!! You win and we Win. All indians should stop commenting about poverty and problems of pakistan-india on this forum. We can mere discuss and keep to the topic!! Moreover pakistan newapaper knowingly puts indian news to attract indian net users and i have suddenly noticed that this website is ranked 1 in pakistan news by alexa

Raja | 13 years ago | Reply @Bilal Khan wrote " India is home to about 25 percent of the world’s hungry poor. " Whatever keeps you happy and your delusions intact :-) India is home to about 17 percent of the TOTAL WORLD POPULATION. Read your sentence again with this information in context. But then whatever keeps you happy and your delusions intact :-)

Al | 13 years ago | Reply @ Bilal , Yes we know we have a lot of poor. Thats exactly why we don't want to approve trade concessions to super rich Pakistan.

Bilal Khan | 13 years ago | Reply @vasan: I really don't want to waste my time in arguing with you people here but as you have come to a Pakistani forum so lets clear this up ... So if we ask for trade concessions based on the natural disasters we had and due to security situation (facts) where suffered $billions and millions of people got homeless so that is begging ? But your poor caring Govt isn't begging when it was asking for a concession from NSG ? We have poor people but our Govt and economy is weak .. unlike yours and for once stop saying according to us you have poor people ... so have a look please http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PovertyinIndia Poverty is widespread in India, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41% of India falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day This number is higher than the 410 million poor living in the 26 poorest African nations.[4] World Food Organization website :- http://www.wfp.org/node/3485 "Despite significant economic progress in the past decade, India is home to about 25 percent of the world's hungry poor. Although the country grows enough food for its people, pockets of hunger remain. According to government figures, around 43 per cent of children under the age of five years are malnourished and more than half of all pregnancy women aged between 15 and 49 years suffer from anaemia". If Indian govt instead of spending money on non necessary issues spend some on their poor you wont have poverty in the country ... If your people are suffering because of it its not my problem but just saying bcoz they are also human and if your govt CAN afford to help them why aren't they ? but you people wont agree with me because after all you have access to food education and accessories like internet to use it for useless discussions and fighting on the forums.

Bangash | 13 years ago | Reply This is the dirty Indian attitude of not allowing even a slight improvement for its neighbors, only whats good for India. We see the same attitude in Kashmir where all Indians care about is for the Indian flag to be flying over Kashmir, the blood soaked ground the flag is flying on doesn't matter to them.

Adnan Mahmood | 13 years ago | Reply Reading above comments, it looks like an Indian newspaper's article :-) Indians seem to be more concious about taking over Pakistan than just focussing on their own issues.

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply Cool it guys. This is just a trade related issue which affects the poor textile industry labourers in their own country. So B Desh, Vietnam and India opposed it. Why should it blamed on "Na Aman", "Hypocrites" etc. After all according to you guys we have the max poor people in the world, max slums etc. So let the poor people not lose this avenue of their earnings. In case you dont like my logical argument: As Bilal Khan would sum it up in one word "BEGGARS" Absolutely no Ghairat amongst pakistanis, They beg from any one and everyone incl their poor enemy on any excuse OK Does this convince you guys. Have a break, Cool it man

HSM | 13 years ago | Reply Guyz! Dont be heat up. Its a give and take business. Have a look at this: http://tribune.com.pk/story/136079/wagha-border-indian-traders-demand-route-to-central-asia/

Rajiv | 13 years ago | Reply I fail to understand why Pakistan is expecting India to give such advantage to India.Giving the past relationship between India and Pakistan only a fool will expect India to give such concession.

Bilal Khan | 13 years ago | Reply @sandy: Did you think the same about your nuclear waver issue ? Did you have your IFs and Buts at that time ? @ All Indians: Just one word to sum it up ... HYPOCRITES @ Anoop: what do you mean by according to Pakistanis ? go and google it mate ... its not us saying it its a fact ... 1/3 of poors of whole world are living in India ... and despite having such huge economy and GDP growth ... because your Govt wants to just day dream of showing India at par with rest of developed countries and have to send missions to moons and spend on weapons uselessly ... Admit it china is never gonna have a war with you ... and you will end up throwing away those weapons at end of its life. Just because of countries like yours Europe and US etc are earning so much. GoI don't care about common man a very sad reality ... all the best with that

Raj | 13 years ago | Reply I will blame the author more than common Pakistanis. This is classic example of yellow journalism.

faraz | 13 years ago | Reply Dont worry, we still have the 'atum bumb'

chandran | 13 years ago | Reply some one here told the truth india is poor country than pakisthan,bangladesh because of the size of the population

Iftikhar-ur-Rehman | 13 years ago | Reply And still some people are trying out AMAN KI ASHA??? These guys are living in fools paradise. India and Indians will never ever be friends.

AnIndian | 13 years ago | Reply Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam and some other countries have concerns regarding this trade deal... What kind of reporting is this, to say, India is "scuttling" the deal???

Shamim | 13 years ago | Reply @Jam: typical Paki attitude. keep crying

Ali | 13 years ago | Reply @Jam For your information, Bangladesh and Srilanka had also opposed this deal but our media likes to highlight only India.

Jam | 13 years ago | Reply Typical Indian attitude, time will tell who will emerge stronger from this and it wont be India.

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply According to Pakistanis India has more poor than Pakistan, then why should Pakistan get the trade concessions? Shouldn't India deserve it more than Pakistan, in that case? You cant have the cake and eat it too.. India's objection is in order. We dont ask for unfair concessions and will not allow anyone else to get it either. I applaud the Indian Government for taking this step. Our interests come first.

sandy | 13 years ago | Reply It is a very dangerous trend that Paki financial "experts" are trying to push through. Imagine a situation where every country, whenever under a natural disaster can seek trade concessions from WTO. What a stupid idea.. What if Japan asks trade concessions after tsunami?, china asks trade concessions after earthquake?, India asks concession after cyclone??? or tomorrow other countries ask trade concessions ????? Can paki govt who have basically textile and terrorism to export, compete in such scenario in future??? How can Paki "experts" be such short sighted? This is exactly what can be expected from a constant cry baby, who cannot even stand on its own feet but wants to do jump the ocean to show off foolishly. Funny that Govt of pak itself is boasting in all media that its exports are highest in history, but on other hand begging for concessions setting a dangerous global trend.

kamaal | 13 years ago | Reply India has done right thing,it can'nt put its exporters at disadvantage just because Pakistani business men does not pay their taxes.If pakistani business houses start paying taxes they wo'nt need any money from any other country.Why India should suffer because of inefficieny of pakistani administration and greed of pakistani businessmen??

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply Good on you India, Indian textile workers will thank you for this

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