Concessions to Pakistan: India opposes EU trade relief, again

Time-bound trade concession package remains unapproved nine months after last year’s floods.

ISLAMABAD:

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council on Tuesday failed to convince the nations opposing limited trade concessions for flood-hit Pakistan, with New Dehli acting as the major stumbling block to the passage of these concessions.

The matter has been deferred till the end of May, dimming the prospects of provision of any substantial and timely relief package.

The time-bound trade concession package remains unapproved even nine months after the floods hit Pakistan, affecting some 20 million people.

The WTO General Council meeting ended inconclusively due to continuous opposition by India and other nations including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

The council’s inability to convince India may also slow the momentum of trade liberalisation between India and Pakistan, as all hopes of India withdrawing its opposition have been dashed in the wake of Pakistan’s refusal to grant New Delhi the Most Favoured Nation status.

“No substantive discussion took place during the meeting and it is clear that further consultations are needed to facilitate the necessary consensus at the WTO”, said EU Ambassador to Pakistan Lars Gunnar Wigemark while talking to The Express Tribune.

In a bid to compensate losses caused by the floods, the EU had proposed to waive off duties on 75 dutiable products exported by Pakistan. The selected product lines amount to almost 900 million Euros in import value, accounting for about 27 per cent of the EU imports from Pakistan. The total imports amount to 3.3 billion euros.

Wigemark said consultations between the EU and other WTO members, including India, are ongoing with a view to finding consensus. In the meantime, the legislative process within the EU would move forward, he said.

The European Parliament will consider the internal
EU legislative proposal for trade concessions on May 9,
as it may vote on it the same day.

Secretary Commerce Zafar Mahmood said the time- bound trade concessions was an initiative of the EU and now it is up to the bloc of 27 nations to resolve the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2011.