European Parliament is withdrawing Pakistan’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) status over the controversial Blasphemy laws.
An EU political report published on 26 July Philippe Jeune highlighted that Islamabad was trading opportunities offered by the EU, GSP as a major beneficiary.
Now, Pakistan will have to pay additional export duty on the textile products exported to EU. Textiles and apparels accounted for 75.2 per cent of Pakistan’s total exports to the EU in 2020.
This move is expected to benefit Indian apparel manufacturers. Indian giants of home textile as well as apparel industry will get benefit as some orders that earlier used to be placed with Pakistani companies, will now shift to India.
The EU Parliament stated, “Such a move, which apparently enjoys the support of the majority of the house, would be highly damaging for Pakistan’s economy: from 2010 to 2020, EU27 imports from Pakistan have almost doubled, with much of the growth coming in the aftermath of the award of GSP+ in 2014.”
In its last compliance review in 2020, the EU had extended Pakistan’s GSP+ status for another two years, making the country eligible for availing preferential duties till 2022.
Earlier in April, the EU had adopted a joint motion for a resolution on the blasphemy laws in Pakistan as it urged the Islamic Republic to opt for a more comprehensive approach to address the abuses of blasphemy laws.
As per media reports, Pakistan attracted condemnation for convicting a Christian couple of blasphemy in an apex court, who were both handed death by hanging sentence in 2013 despite the couple being illiterate and the alleged blasphemous message being in English.
“From 1 January 2014, Pakistan has benefited from generous tariff preferences (mostly zero duties on two-thirds of all product categories) under the so-called GSP+ arrangement aiming to support sustainable development and good governance,” the declassified report read.
It goes on to add that Pakistan was obliged to ratify and effectively implement 27 core international conventions on human and labour rights, environmental protection and good governance in order to keep its GSP+ status intact.
However, in view of the global condemnation of Pakistan’s controversial Blasphemy Laws, the European Parliament has called to question the status quo of the country’s GSP+ benefits.
“Abuse of Blasphemy Laws in Islamabad is a major concern, and cases have been widely reported,” the EU political report alleged. A Joint Motion for a Resolution, backed by all major global political groups, and MEPs, pushed the EU to conduct an immediate review of Pakistan’s eligibility for GSP+ status earlier this year. The decision, considered appropriate, was the withdrawal of Islamabad’s status.
The European Commission’s official figures reveal that EU was now Pakistan’s second most important trading partner, accounting for 14.3 per cent of Pakistan’s total trade in 2020, and absorbing 28 per cent of Pakistan’s total exports.
