Islamabad: The European Parliament of the European Union has approved to roll over the rules on the Generalized Scheme of Preferences-Plus (GSP+) till 2027, for developing countries, including Pakistan, the commerce minister said on Thursday.
A trade body of the EU Parliament, approved the extension of GSP schemes for 60 developing countries. This extension on the Generalized Scheme of Preferences-Plus (GSP+) will benefit developing nations including Pakistan to export their goods to Europe duty free or with minimum duty.
The Federal Minister for Commerce & Industries Gohar Ejaz on Thursday posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), “The European Council is expected to give its final approval for the extension of the current scheme soon,”
“I take this opportunity to reiterate Pakistan's commitments under the Scheme for the betterment of all. I wish to thank the EU Parliament for living up to its commitment to facilitate trade from developing countries,” He added.
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European Union (EU) Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Riina Kionka took to X, to respond to a post from Minister Gohar Ejaz, and clarify that “This rollover is proposed so as to avoid a cliff edge at the end of 2023,”
“It is unrelated to Pakistan’s performance or that of any other beneficiary country,”
“European Union Member States will decide soon. Monitoring will continue”, she added.
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Ambassador Kionka also posted another post on X that “together with team Europe, I wholeheartedly support the commitment of Minister Gohar Ejaz and the Government of Pakistan to fully meet GSP+ obligations.”
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It is worth mentioning that the current GSP regulation was set to expire at the end of this year, and negotiations between the EU parliament and the council of member states took place in January 2023 to establish new rules.
In June, talks were paused as the gap between the position of the parliament and member states could not be bridged, and as a result, the current rules were prolonged.
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As for the statement by Delegation of the European Union to Pakistan on July 9, said that “Pakistan’s obligations to maintain the status remain the same,”
“Pakistan will continue to benefit from the preferential access to the European Market. Pakistan’s obligations to maintain the status also remain the same”.
As, the proposed extension of the EU’s global GSP regulation means that, for now, nothing changes.
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She continued to say that Pakistan “has the same obligations as before in terms of implementing the 27 international human rights conventions” and that the EU will “continue to monitor progress and report to the European Parliament.”
