On Monday, Pakistan and the European Union (EU) reaffirmed their commitment to advancing their partnership in a number of areas, including Islamabad’s Generalised System of Preferences-Plus (GSP-Plus) status.
The breakthrough occurred at a meeting between EU Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Riina Kionka and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who visited him in Islamabad today.
The EU and Pakistan, including GSP Plus, should continue to benefit from their economic cooperation, the foreign minister expressed hope.
During the meeting, the two parties also addressed bilateral ties between Pakistan and the EU as well as topics of shared interest.
The expanding bilateral ties between Pakistan and the EU were noted with satisfaction by the two parties.
It is important to note that the existing rule governing Pakistan’s GSP-Plus status will expire on December 31, 2023.
Former Punjab governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar stated in March 2023 that he actively participated in obtaining the GSP plus plan from the EU for Pakistan and that he is still striving to do so.
According to him, Pakistan should be granted access to the EU GSP Plus facility for the following ten years. However, he claimed that Bangladesh had expanded its exports by five times thanks to the EU’s GSP plus programme, whereas Pakistan was unable to fully utilise this facility. He highlighted that in order to increase exports to EU nations, the business community sector should endeavour to fully utilise this opportunity.
He said that the business community had a key role in the development of the economy as it created jobs, promoted wealth creation and boosted the tax revenue of the country.
When he visited the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), he addressed the business community and said this. Sarwar claimed that Pakistan received $300 billion in exports and remittances during the previous five years, but even today, we were compelled to comply with all of the IMF’s requirements for just that amount.
