ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for Commerce and Textiles Muhammad Pervaiz Malik on Thursday hoped that Pakistan would succeed in mid-term review of Generalized Systems of Preferences Plus (GSP Plus) negotiation between Pakistan and European Union (EU) to be held in mid of upcoming December.
“We have evolved comprehensive strategy for a positive mid-term review of GSP Plus extended by the European Union (EU) for duty relaxation on our exports to enhance the trade with potential market of EU Countries,” the minister told the state-run news agency in Islamabad.
The minister said that priority of Pakistan is to get support from all trading partners of EU including Germany, Spain, Netherlands, France and others to achieve the target for enhancing our exports with these Countries.
Pervaiz Malik said that the government is committed to enhance the country’s exports and achieve its trade targets. His ministry would evolve a short, medium and long term strategies for enhancing the multilateral trade with different potential markets of the world, he said.
Replying to question regarding EU’s markets, he said that Pakistan had a huge opportunity for exporting different goods and after signing the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP Plus), Pakistan had increased its exports in EU in different sectors.
The minister said that exports of home textile products to EU from Pakistan had increased by 60 percent in 2016 as compared to 2013.
Pakistan’s exports of carpets and rugs in the EU had increased from 30.30 million Euros in 2013 to 37.92 million Euros in 2016, he added.
Replying to another question regarding his recent visit to EU Countries, he said “Pakistan and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States have agreed to explore future bilateral trade and investment opportunities.”
Pervaiz Malik said that both sides were willing to sign bilateral Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between Pakistan and EFTA, which also discussed in PAK-EFTA Joint Committee meeting.
The minister added that Pakistan and EFTA States agreed to explore future bilateral trade and investment opportunities. EFTA is free trade association of four member states comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, he said.
The minister said that bilateral trade and investment between the two sides hold enormous potential and the existing figures of $588 million bilateral trade do not reflect this potential.
Replying to another question, he said Pakistan wants to initiate negotiation with South East Asian nations on proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for enhancing the multilateral trade and competitiveness in country’s trade.
The Countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Japan in Pacific region are also in the list for starting dialogue on PTA leading towards FTA for promoting trade liberalization, he said .
