Deputy Head of EU Mission Mr. Thomas Seiler said on Saturday that Pakistan must exploit untapped economic potential of the European Union under the GSP Plus Scheme to overcome its current economic crisis.
Addressing the business community at FCCI, he underlined the importance of duty-free
access to Pakistani products to European markets and said that it had particularly benefited the textile sector of Pakistan.
He said that most of the textile mills were using European machinery which helped them to improve the quality of their products.
“We are also working on technology transfer”, he said and hoped that it would pave the way for Pakistani exporters to unlock the huge potential in other sectors in addition to textiles.
He said that Pakistan should now move forward in technology and launch projects like car manufacturing etc.
However, in this connection, two sides should collaborate and cooperate with each other.
Continuing Mr. Seiler said the facility of GSP Plus was directly linked with a number of agreements, treaties and protocols already ratified by Pakistan.
He said the current tenure of GSP Plus was going to expire in December 2023 and the government of Pakistan must apply right now for the extension of this facility.
He said the EU Mission was critically examining the implementation of different treaties.
He said that in view of the current devastating floods in Pakistan, he personally intends to extend it but in the prevailing global scenario the tenure of proposed extension may be restricted to 3-4 years instead of ten years.
He further said the GSP Plus issue would be discussed in EU parliament during coming months of September and October to make a final decision.
However, the business community of Faisalabad must pressurize its government to launch aggressive lobbying to win support from maximum EU countries for the continuity of this facility.—APP
