Advertisement

Pakistan voices concern over India-EU FTA
NAVEED BUTT
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU), which what it said, may affect 78.7 percent of Pak exports to the EU. According to the documents available with Business Recorder, the government has shown serious concern over the EU’s on-going FTA negotiations particularly with India, which would affect Pakistan’s market access to the EU.

The government has conveyed its concerns to the European Commission’s (EC) Pak-EC Sub-Group on Trade, constituted under the Third Generation Co-operation Agreement. The sub-group conducted a study on the impact of the EU trade policies on Pakistan’s market access to the EU which revealed that Pakistan could be affected, particularly its industries, by changes in preference margins as a result of EU FTAs and there may be long-term effects on Pakistan in terms of foreign direct investment and services, which can affect the attractiveness of doing business with Pakistan.

It is also said, “An easing of rules of origin in EU-India FTA can have major consequences for the Pakistani textile exporters. However, the key issue is the actual tariff preferences that India may get in the FTA.” A study commissioned by the Commonwealth Secretariat on EU-India FTA also confirmed that the country most likely to be affected by this FTA will be Pakistan since 78.7 percent of its exports to the EU will face increased competition from India.

Now, Pakistan is willing to consider undertaking deeper integration in FTA with the EU, which includes liberalisation in goods, services, investment, government procurement and intellectual property rights as per the EU’s standards and requirements. However, the EU, in principal, needs to agree to enter FTA dialogue with Pakistan.

Source: Business Recorder